The 42nd Supreme Being
by Odama Rasendori
Summary: Momonga thought he was the last member of Ainz Ooal Gown to be logged in game before the end of YGGDRASIL. Technically, he's right. What he failed to mention was the existence of a member who left the guild before the game's shut down. Mostly written in first person PoV. Read the important note on chapter 1 before proceeding with the story.
1. Chapter 1

_**IMPORTANT - READ THIS FIRST!**_

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 **#1. I'm not a die-hard reader of the light novel/web novel/manga**

 _All the info I get is from the English-dubbed anime adaptation, and from the overlord wiki website. With regards to website information, I also took some comments into consideration, as long as they didn't sound completely over-the-top stupid. But even the over-the-top stupid comments, which I somehow understood as not stupid at all, I also considered. Oh, and I tend to misinterpret a lot of information in wiki-type websites, so take what you will from my story._

 **#2. I'm not really big on online games anymore.**

 _I used to be, a loooooong time ago, but now only play them VERY casually. Like, more casually than a player known as a 'filthy casual.'_

 _While that is true, I've read a few fanfics in which the protagonist, from their world, has become transported into a magical/fantasy world; hopefully I don't completely screw this up with that kind of knowledge in my head; it isn't much, but it's something. This story, staying true to the series, will have an OC that is overpowered in comparison to the people of the New World, much like Ainz. Will the OC be more overpowered than Ainz? Probably not, or at least I'll try not to make it so, but no promises. If overpowered characters, compared to those around them, are not your thing, you're probably watching the wrong anime._

 **Note:** _the OC's overpowered nature will only be true within the parameters of in-game combat. For example - the OC is a good PvP duelist (not the best, but not bad either) with a good grasp of his job's strengths and weaknesses. Does the OC know what a 'shit test' is? Absolutely not._

 **#3. While the OC is, I think, overpowered, big weaknesses are still involved.**

 _For example - the OC has high physical attack, high magic attack, and above average mobility, but low defenses. What trope does this character fit into? I would say a mobile glass cannon. Dodging and high speed movement is possible, but upon taking a clean and actively undefended (block or parry) hit, it will hurt a lot._

 **#4. What are the combat stats of the OC?**

 _These are approximate combat stats that DO NOT include equipment enchantments or active/passive buffs_

 _HP: 80_

 _MP: 95_

 _PHYS ATT: 80_

 _PHYS DEF: 40_

 _AGILITY/STAMINA: 80_

 _MAG ATT: 85_

 _MAG DEF: 40_

 _RESIST: 95_

 _SPECIAL ABILITY: 100_

 _TOTAL: 695_

 **#5. The story will be told in first person point of view (POV), but will change, when needed, to third person. Afterward, it will hop back to first person.**

 _Why? Because reasons and feelings... but mostly reasons._

 **#6. You will see a lot of references to various anime or games that you may or may not have heard of in the past.**

 _If these references bother you, I'm terribly sorry but I'm not changing them. I meant for this story to have a lot of my childhood memories in it._

 **DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the anime/game references included in this story. They belong to their respective anime/game universes, platforms, and creators.**

 **#7. Will I be continuing the other stories that Odama Rasendori did not finish?**

 _Maybe, depending on how this story goes. If it turns out that I do have a somewhat decent ability to write fanfiction, I'll consider it. If not, then... well, no._

 **#8. Reserved.**

 _I'm sure there are others, but the above six (not counting the 7th) are all I can think of, off the top of my head. When I think of more, I'll include them here. Should you expect me to update this list regularly? Probably not._

* * *

 **DISCLAIMER: I do not own Overlord. If I did, Solution Epsilon would look more sexually appealing than she already is.**

 **Overlord – Chapter 1**

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*tick* *tick* *tick*

I glanced to the upper-right side of my screen, less than five minutes until the YGGDRASIL servers close forever. It's been a sweet ride, but I guess all good things must come to an end eventually. I've been playing this game for years, even invested a considerable amount of time and money into it – it's been a wonderful online DMMORPG game, one of the very first successful ones since the hit sensation became a trend. There's even a new one that came out. What was it called? Something about swords and some kind of art… online, something.

Whatever. I ordered the box online, it's supposed to arrive three days from now.

I met some people on this server, who said they'd be playing the new game I just bought. They invited me to their adventuring party, but I haven't chosen to accept or decline just yet. I thought back to my old YGGDRASIL guild, the one I'm no longer a part of. It's the fault of a damned quest; it had some very horrible requirements, one of which denies me from having any access to a guild. Another requirement is having an empty buddy list. It's supposed to be a solo quest, for my race, the oni race, and it's proven to be extremely difficult so far. I've been at this for four weeks, and I'm so close to finishing.

I found the quest, a month ago – it was hidden behind many achievements, secretly added into the game with the most recent and final update YGGDRASIL will ever have. After clearing every single raid at the highest difficulty, including a new one that was added a few months ago, a hooded NPC appeared behind me while I shopped in town for some potions. The NPC's physical stature told me it was male, due to the lack of obvious body parts that would suggest otherwise. Before I could say anything, he walked by me, slipped an envelope into my adventurer's bag, and vanished.

I hadn't seen him since.

Obviously, I opened the envelope, read the contents, followed one extremely vague clue after the next, and found myself unlocking this racial quest that only an oni can undertake. It's been a topsy-turvy ride, but here I am now, in front of the big boss that's protecting what would be the final reward of this stupidly long quest line. I've gotta say though, I've enjoyed the hell out of it. I wonder if the development team added this quest just because they felt like it, and because the game was going under anyway. Maybe I'll send them an email when the servers go down, just to sate my curiosity.

I took a deep breath slowly, then let it out as I looked at the demon general before me – a minotaur-like creature donning black and red armor, and wielding a gray-bodied spear with a sharpened diamond tip. Blood was splattered all over its body, along with slash marks through its armor. I looked to the upper-left side of my screen, noting my total health to be at fifteen percent, and total mana at eight percent, then back at the demon general. It's been a hard-fought battle, but I need to finish this.

It doesn't have much health left, but then neither do I. I have passive abilities that allow health regeneration, but those effects are negated for this boss battle. One attack will finish this; it'll finish either of us depending on who lands the final blow.

I gripped the leather-bound hilt of my silver claymore, Raijin. It was originally a katana, but I changed its appearance to a claymore as soon as I found the time to gather the materials needed. There's an NPC in almost every town that offers services that changes the appearance of items to another item. However, only similar items can act as a catalyst for item-appearance changing. For example, a one-hand sword will only change to another one-hand sword. A claymore, being a two-hand sword, was a good candidate for a katana, which is also a two-hand sword.

I think katanas are cool, but, as a Japanese man, I'm already used to the appearance of katanas due to our culture and so the look of one is somewhat bland to me. When I saw a claymore, once, when walking down a market plaza in-game, a medium-tier great sword was featured as one of the store's hottest selling items – obviously for newer and journeyman players. It wasn't very powerful, but the polished silver, V-shaped cross-guard, the black leather-bound grip, the silver pommel with a sapphire embedded in the center, and the Scottish-inspired straight blade made me drool.

I bought it immediately and used it as a catalyst to change the appearance of my katana.

Regarding Raijin itself, two good years was what it took to gather the materials to craft this divine-tier blade from the piece of crap weapon that it used to be. It came from a quest in town. A dull blade was thrown into a trash heap, and adventurers picked it up to start the quest. It was apparently an ancient magical sword that was once wielded by one of YGGDRASIL's greatest heroes. The sword was passed down from one great warrior to the next, but its magic waned through its countless battles.

What differs Raijin from other weapons is that it houses the soul of Xolotl, the elder god of thunder and lightning. It grants the wielder all the primal fury of the most powerful lightning creature in YGGDRASIL. Only a righteous hero, pure of heart, could wield the sacred blade… well, that's what the quest text said. Truthfully, I'm pretty far from pure of heart but I don't think I'm an absolute douche bag either. The quest involved the elder god being released due to a weakened physical blade from ages of constant battle.

Adventurers required a high black smith, smelting, mining, and enchanting level to find the required ores, scattered all over YGGDRASIL. That's one method. The other method is hiring the services of adventurers who possessed said non-combat classes. That is the route I took.

The ores needed were known as argonite, a very rare ore that had a three percent drop rate from raid bosses at the highest difficulty setting, and could not be sold or bought.

Nine argonite bars were required, at a rate of two ores per bar. The bar itself isn't what's needed, per se, but the core at the center and inner-most of the bar. to refit the sword. After the sword's physical form was restored, the wielder had to slay the rogue elder god, which required at least two raid parties – 20 players per raid party. Evixius would only spawn in fiery areas, randomly, about four times per year, and only sixty minutes at a time before despawning if not killed.

The wielder would have to be the one to deal the killing blow, with Raijin, to reseal Evixius into the claymore. Afterward, a maxed level enchanter would have to place a spell on the blade that would ensure Evixius would never be released again.

Many adventurers eventually gave up early on or halfway into the quest, opting for easier-to-obtain weapons. Between 1-5 players ended up completing the quest, per server, obtaining a fully-powered divine-tier two-handed sword as a reward.

Raijin is perfect for my class, the war wizard. While warriors can cast up to tenth-tier physical arts, and mages can cast up to tenth-tier magic arts, war wizards can only cast up to ninth-tier, but of both arts. The unfortunate part is while war wizards have high attack power in terms of melee and magic, they, conversely, have low physical and magical defense. I'll never beat a mage in a full-on magic brawl, but my ninth-tier melee attacks will easily overwhelm his pitiful physical defenses, same for warriors and their inability to use magic, and lack of high magical defenses.

Raijin, on top of already having extremely high base stats, has a few effects of its own: it deals normal weakness damage to all enemies not weak or resistant to lightning. Enemies resistant to lightning take normal damage as if its resistance was negated. Enemies weak to lightning take double weakness damage. All damage it deals is evenly split: half as physical, and half as lightning.

It has the ability to purge one harmful magical or physical effect from the wielder every ten seconds; it grants a four percent health regeneration, of total health, per second; it bumps up the damage of my ninth-tier lightning spells to be on par with their tenth-tier versions; it also halves the mana costs for all lightning element magic arts at ninth-tier and under. The lightning damage boost also affects weapon swings at a rate of fifty-five percent, increasing the base fifty percent lightning damage dealt by Raijin to a total of 77.5 percent damage dealt as lightning.

Lastly, Raijin is indestructible. This is due to the soul of an elder god trapped inside. So long as its soul is intact, the body of an elder god is indestructible. When I drew its soul from its body, into the sword, its body dissipated into nothingness. With the enchantment preventing it from ever escaping again, or being magically drawn out, the sword not only acts as its prison but its permanent body as well.

The demon general before me let out a piercing roar, forcing me out of my personal thoughts. It must be getting restless. It's just a collection of pixels and polygons. Can it even feel restlessness, or feel anything at all? I don't know, nor will I ever. I have a little under a minute to finish this. Of course, none of this will matter once the game shuts down. But I want to be able to tell myself that these past four weeks was not for naught.

I gripped the hilt of my claymore and used a magic scroll to imbue it with the power of light. As a demon, it has a natural weakness to light or holy attribute weapons and enchantments. I looked to my mana bar, six percent left, enough for one more spell but I won't need another. This stupid thing already beat me half a dozen times, so I have its pattern down by now. I would have taken longer on this quest, if the death penalty applied, but it doesn't against this boss.

The creature rushed at me and stabbed its spear in my direction. I parried the strike sideways and struck its sternum with the butt of my sword, causing it to stagger. Quickly, I strafed behind it and swung my blade straight across its spine, cutting its body in half.

The demon roared, possibly in agony, as it dissipated into tiny particles of black polygons. I let out a breath of relief and sheathed my sword as I sprinted up a flight of stairs. Right before me was a shrine dedicated to some deity, I think, and a glowing rune blade floating just over a stone podium. Both blade sides formed semi crescent-moon shapes that repeated four times from the base toward the middle. Red runes were etched on both flat sides of the sword, spelling out its name on one side, and the word "vanquisher of evil," on the other.

The game's tool tip had it named "Bishamon," after the Japanese god of war. It seems to have high base stats, too high. Here I thought Raijin was already powerful, but this thing has at least twice or thrice the juice. The item's flavor text said: "this mythical world item has the power to drive away evil."

Whoa, this is a world item? Sweet, I've just hit the jackpot! There was also some red text under the item: "Bishamon can only be wielded during the Oni Ascension transformation." I rolled my eyes, of course there would be a stipulation. Still, it's a world item, so that's gotta count for something. But it being chained with the usage of Oni Ascension means it won't be getting as much up-time as, say, Raijin. Then again, I did somewhat expect this. It's a world item, and those are too powerful to just use over and over without conditions.

Looking at it again, it seems to be an item with limitless uses – just that it requires a catalyst in order to use. Otherwise, it collects cobwebs in my inventory bag. Maybe I can put it in Nazarick's world item vault. It would be fairly useless for anyone without the proper catalyst, though.

Oni Ascension is the second step to Oni Awakening, a racial ability that every oni has. Oni Awakening grants 45 percent increased damage dealt, 40 percent decreased damage taken, and adds a 50 percent resistance to all harmful magical effects such as freeze, burn, poison, and curses. The skill has a six-minute cooldown and a 60-second duration. Oni Ascension was one of the rewards given on this quest, but I can't use it until I finish this quest. It increases the damage boost of Oni Awakening from 50 to 150 percent, grants complete immunity to all damage, and decreases that application rate of harmful magical effects by 85 percent.

However, unlike its predecessor, Oni Ascension has a six hour cool down with only a 100-second duration. Still, for complete damage immunity and more than double damage dealt, it's an incredible ability. I bet the development team added it for shits and giggles, since players would only be able to experience it for a month or less due to the game shutting down. I think I heard the development team moving on to a new project; I can't remember what it was, though.

The moment I took hold of the blade, a screen appeared, in front of me, congratulating me on completing the quest. I breathed a sigh of relief as I was transported out of the dungeon and back outside – a meadow-like clearing outside a cave. I glanced to the upper-right corner of my screen again, watching the time tick down.

Ten seconds left. It's been fun, YGGDRASIL. I wish I'd have enough time to make it back to the Great Tomb of Nazarick and tell the others of my accomplishment. Oh well, this is what I get for lollygagging so much. I closed my eyes as time struck down. I might as well stay until the end, when I get forcefully logged out. This game is owed that much.

Five, four, three, two, one… zero?

I opened my eyes, slowly looking around. I was still at the meadow area, but a few differences quickly stood out. For one thing, I can feel the sun's light on my skin. YGGDRASIL, advanced as it was, didn't have this feature. Sunlight would touch one's skin, but the feeling of heat would be absent. It's the same with cold environment – players could never truly feel the frozen bitterness of ice. We could feel winds breezing, but only to the slightest degree. I heard that the new online game I bought has perfected such features. I'd like to give it a shot, but first I need to know why I haven't been kicked out of the game yet.

I checked the in-game clock, but saw no clock present. Right under the clock should be a mini map that detailed my immediate surroundings. That map was not present either. I noticed I was no longer holding the sword obtained from the quest. At least that one makes sense, since I have to use the Oni Ascension ability before being able to hold it. I attempted to contact a GM, but immediately found that it's impossible without the in-game menu. I tried to bring it up via voice command, but no such window would appear.

I thought about my predicament for a moment, taking note that my body had become a bit heavier due to the sudden weight of my armor. In YGGDRASIL, players don't feel actual weight on their bodies due to their equipment since it's just polygons and data. Fortunately, war wizards can only wear up to leather armor.

Black leather wrist-gloves, silver cloth pants, a silver cloth long sleeve, and under-the-knee leather boots donned my hands, legs, torso, and feet. Worn over my clothes is an enchanted, black, full-body, leather cloak with a hood attached at the rear-end of the neck area. A zipper-function is present, starting from just over the knees to the area between the collar bones.

The entire set is of legendary-tier, custom-enchanted to increase my physical and magical power. Secondly, on my right ring finger, under my leather glove, is a divine-tier racial ring called Qarzulen, Spirit of the Oni Gods. It has the appearance of an ordinary golden ring with its name engraved around the inner layer in YGGDRASIL language.

Its effect is quite nice if I do say so myself.

Qarzulen adds a second charge to my Oni Awakening ability and halves the cooldown timer. Furthermore, if I were to take fatal damage, and a charge of Oni Awakening is available, I would automatically enter said transformation and will be healed to 50 percent of my total health. If Oni Awakening is already active, prior to taking fatal damage, I am, instead, healed to 30 percent of my total health. Passively, it increases the damage-dealt buff, from Oni Awakening, by 10 percent, for a total of 55 percent. The activation effect can only activate once every ten minutes.

Apart from gear, another thing that bugged me is my somewhat taller and leaner body structure. I was much more physically fit in high school, but the lack of P.E classes in college made me put on a few pounds. I wasn't, by any means, fat, but I didn't feel all that fit either. In fact, I sometimes have a hard time buttoning my trousers for work. I can feel the abs on my stomach. I never had abs when I was younger, more of a flat stomach. But now, I actually feel quite powerful. Still, I'm glad to not be wearing heavy plate armor like warriors and knights. I can't imagine how encumbered I'd be, wearing such dense metal on my body.

As an adventurer, I'm allowed a maximum level of 100 and it can be split in various ways so long as my total level is 100. I've even heard of some players making alternate accounts and raising their characters to have 100 level 1 jobs for fun. Most of YGGDRASIL's high level players maxed two or more combat jobs and took on some non-combat classes and raised those as high as possible, with any remaining levels.

Typically, a player character would choose between their combat jobs as their main job, and then transfer skills from other learned jobs to use for their main job. Only abilities that corresponded to a similar job identity would be available for use. For example, a fire ball spell couldn't be used by someone using a warrior-type job. Conversely, a sword-swing physical art couldn't be used by a magic caster-type job. However, a weaker version of both abilities can be used by a player equipped with a hybrid-type job, such as armored mage.

All jobs, combat and non-combat, excluding race traits, can reach a level cap of 15. I maxed three combat jobs, four non-combat jobs with a level of 10 each, and my race, which included five skills at a level cap of five per skill. For each level I gained to my race, one level would be added to one of the three skills at my choosing.

My main combat job is war wizard, a hybrid that equally uses strong melee and elemental spells; my second combat job is dark knight, a tank role that specializes in physical defense and protecting myself or others from light or holy magic; my third combat job is paladin, a tank profession with a focus on handling magical damage, as well as buffing myself and party members with resistances to shadow damage and effects.

I transferred all of my dark knight's defensive spells to my war wizard, combining physical and magical defense spells with physical and magical offense spells. I also transferred my dark knight's two-handed weapon expertise skill to my war wizard. I wouldn't be able to use Raijin without it. War wizard is a hybrid job that innately allows the usage of one-handed melee weapons, not two-handed ones. I needed my dark knight's expertise skill for that.

As for the healing, buffing, and magic protection spells, I transferred them in to my war wizard as well, but was wary of using them. Players who raised a third combat job, and added skills into their main job, faced a certain dilemma: those skills would cost about 25 percent increased mana. This system was implemented to discourage players from raising too many jobs and eventually weakening their overall main job. However, a minor loophole to this was declaring a war wizard job as a player's main job due to their larger-than-average mana pool.

While this is true, their mana pool is smaller than magic-focused jobs. On the flip side, they have a higher health pool than them. Conversely, they have lower health pools than physical-focused jobs, but higher mana pools than them. War wizards, like warriors, archers, and thief-type jobs, also have a stamina bar. Stamina is used for physical-type attacks. True to their hybrid nature, war wizards have less stamina than warriors, archers, and thieves. However, if the stamina and mp bars are added, the result is an amount very slightly higher than a magic caster's mp without enhancements.

I also took on four non-combat jobs as money-making professions, capping them at level 10 each. My non-combat classes are chef, shape shifter, craftsman, and farmer. Shape shifter, while not very useful in making money, allowed me to blend in with the human-type players and creatures around me. Hostile human-type NPCs, up to level 100, would not attack me unless I engaged them in battle first. Players above level 75 were able to sense I was under a disguise and would attack me as soon as they learned I played a heteromorphic race.

In YGGDRASIL, heteromorphic races were hunted down by human-type races for sport and fun. The latter was the majority race in YGGDRASIL.

The last thing I maxed was my racial job. Each race has five skills, but I chose the three that I thought I'd use most often: Oni Awakening, Summon Oni, and Health Regeneration. Oni Ascension is attached to Oni Awakening, acting as a second transformation, and has no actual level. The Wield Bishamon skill is attached to Oni Awakening as well, through Oni Ascension, and doesn't have any levels either.

It was then that a cool breeze swept by me, snapping me out of my thoughts for a second time.

I looked behind me, seeing the cave where the final stage of the quest took place. Have I somehow been transported inside the game? That seems to be a decent conclusion – it's like those childhood memories of being taken into the game of my dreams to live out the rest of my life. Back then, I wanted such a thing to happen. But now I don't! I finally got the guts to ask out this cute and sweet girl at work, and she said yes. If I don't find a way out of here, I'll miss my date for sure!

Well, I won't make any progress if I just stand still. The first step turned into a good walking pace. I noticed a pond to the side and looked into it, admiring the enigmatic outfit I was wearing. It felt like I was at a renaissance… I've never actually been to a renaissance, though, but I've seen images and videos online.

I also noticed my face had a darkened blue color, glowing white eyes, and hair that seemed to defy gravity – like it was submerged in water. As an oni, this is normal. I shrugged my shoulders and walked on, not exactly sure where I was going as I followed a one-way road. Now that I think about it, why don't I know where I'm going?

I've played YGGDRASIL for years, and I know the place very well. I'd need my map for a couple of regions, but the overall world wasn't unfamiliar to me… and yet this world is. Am I really in YGGDRASIL?

I walked another few minutes in silence until the path became a four-way cross walk. A coach, with two brown horses strapped in front, passed across me. There were two elder passengers; the woman wore a brown long sleeve tunic and a beige ankle-skirt, while the man sported a white tunic and brown pants. Both wore a pair of old black shoes… without laces. Before I could raise a brow at their choice in fashion, the old woman looked to me and let out a frightful scream, pointing at my face as she shut her eyes.

At the woman's sudden shout, the old man, whose hands were on the reins of the horses, pulled against them, ordering the steeds to stop walking.

Why is she pointing at my face? What's wrong with it? Has she never seen an oni before? Oni are a very common race in YGGDRASIL, and human NPCs have no fear of us unless we mean them harm. I may a claymore strapped to my back, but I haven't engaged her in battle, or anyone for that matter. But if she was pointing at my face, shouting her heart out, then it means I'm definitely not in YGGDRASIL. Wherever I am now, oni are probably considered monsters. Well, we kind of are but at least we're human-shaped and not obscenely tall, giant, bone-skinny, or fat.

The older man comforted his wife and began to look my way.

"I'm sorry, kind sir. I don't know what came over my wife," he said with a smile, patting the older woman's back. "What's the problem? It's just a man with strange clothes and a sword. You yelled like you saw a monster."

I narrowed my eyes slightly as I drew my sword used the blade to reflect at my face. I looked like a normal eastern man with long, disheveled, black hair. I noticed a sudden spike of energy in my body. Did I just use a type of spell without realizing it? Perhaps my body reacted to the old woman shouting at my inhuman appearance. I'm going to have to revisit this later. The old woman slowed her shaking to a halt as she looked my way.

"Oh… forgive me, young man. I could have sworn I saw a dark-skinned monster with glowing white eyes and hair. It must be these old eye balls of mine, please accept my apology," she said.

"No problem," I said with a light chuckle.

"Say, are you headed to E-Rantel? We can give you a lift, if you like," said the old man. What a strange name for a village. The even stranger part is that name doesn't sound familiar in YGGDRASIL. I might as well ask them. "It's the least we can do for the trouble."

"Um, before that, and I know this is an odd question, but does the word Yggdrasil mean anything to you two?" I asked.

Two elders looked to each other for a moment, then back at me as they shook their heads with grunts. So it's true, then. I'm not in YGGDRASIL. But I'm still wearing my equipment from the game. Too many things don't add up. There's only one logical thing to do now, since I've apparently been transported to a new world where magic and monsters are probably involved, due to the existence of my equipment; I need to gather some intel. I'm not even sure if I've been taken to a game world, since everything looks and feels so real. If I'm not in a game world, does that mean I can't respawn if I die?

I better not try that out.

"I see. Well, I'm a traveling warrior from the south, seeking adventure… and a meal," I said, cursing my luck for not packing food.

I have some potions and other varieties of healing items in my… wait, where's my adventurer's bag? I patted my hands around my body, unsuccessful in locating said container. What I did find, however, was a brown leather pouch strapped on my belt by a metal chain. I opened it up, fingered inside, and pulled out a small marble. A second later, the marble transformed into a vial containing blue liquid. These are the mana potions of YGGDRASIL. I cocked up a brow and slipped the vial back into the pouch. It turned into a marble again.

Hmm, that's convenient.

It seems I still have all my stuff, well, I assume so, but they're now in the form of a marble until I take them out. And, when I want to put something back in, I merely place it at the mouth of the pouch and it'll turn into small marble. I'll need to find a way to organize my stuff, though. It would be bad if I wanted a healing potion and instead pulled out a mana potion. At the mention of food, the elder woman's face brightened up.

"If a meal is what you're looking for, E-Rantel has a couple of taverns that serve meals for all stomachs in this world!" she said.

"Oh, really? How much per meal?" I asked.

"A plate of decent meat and bread and a mug of water is around five krill, I'd say," he said. I tilted my head in confusion. What the heck is a krill? "Oh, right, you're a traveler; you must, then, be confused at our system of currency. Odd, I thought our currency was universal. If not, then I guess it would make sense for you to never have heard of our monetary system."

I nodded.

"What you need to know are the three types coins used as money in this kingdom: the bronze krill, the silver dill, and the gold quarl," he said. "Krill is of the lowest value, followed by dill, and quarl being the highest. A hundred krill is equivalent to one dill, and a hundred dill is equivalent to one quarl."

"I see. Would you kindly give me an example of what I can buy with, say, a hundred of each coin? I'd like to have a better idea of the purchase power of each coin," I said. The old man stroked his chin for a few seconds.

"A hundred krill can buy you a good horse, a hundred dill are enough for a set of heavy mythril plate armor and a mythril weapon, and I think a hundred quarl can get you a good house, including a stable for your horse, at the nicer part of the kingdom, Re-Estize," he said. Well, that's a bummer; the money I have from YGGDRASIL is worthless here since they use a different currency system. The coins in-game didn't use a copper and silver system, only gold.

Also, he mentioned Re-Estize as the name of the kingdom. Far as I understand it, E-Rantel is a small town located within the borders of the kingdom of Re-Estize. I should have them explain more of the geography to me. Might as well gain as much information as I can. The old woman brandished a bronze coin with the emblem of a sword embedded at the center, and showed it to me.

"This is a krill," she said. I took a mental note of the bronze coin and nodded. "My husband and I have a handful of krill, only a few dill, and only two gold to our name. Otherwise, we would offer you more than just a ride to E-Rantel for my shameful reaction."

"Please, think nothing of it. Perhaps I can find work at E-Rantel, to pay for my meal," I said. The two nodded as I entered the coach and sat next to a bag of what looked like wheat. I guess these two are farmers of some sort. My guess is they're going to the village to sell some goods.

As for me, I need to learn how to use my powers. Assuming I've taken on the persona of my YGGDRASIL character, I should have retained all of his powers as well. I drew my claymore, wondering how to wrap it in electricity like I did in the game.

The base of the blade sparked with blue electricity that lit the body of the blade to glow blue with crackling thunder. Okay, it's just like the game, then; I merely have to think about which ability I need to use, and then it comes to pass.

I felt a tiny bit of mana drain from my body, courtesy of the ability used, then it returned a second later. Good, passive recoveries are check. I focused on removing the electric element from my sword, and out the energy went. All right, simple enough. It would be pretty embarrassing if someone of my level couldn't perform the most basic of attacks.

I took out my pouch, next. I need to find a way to organize my items so I don't end up using the wrong stuff in battle. Suddenly, the coach stopped. I heard voices outside and strapped my pouch back on my belt.

"All right, oldies, you know the drill. Step away from the goods and no one gets hurt," said the voice of a very cocky man. I sighed at the events that transpired. The usual mugging, in every hero's story book. I can never understand what drives these low lives to rob the belongings of old people who can't even defend themselves. I stepped out of the coach, surprising some of the bandits outside. "Boss, there's a man inside."

"Is that so?" said a taller and stronger-looking man in the background.

I notes his muscular appearance, seeing the muscles on his muscles. This guy must take pride in his strength, showing off his arms as he wore a simple chest plate that covered his torso except his shoulders, arms, and hands. He pulled out an axe from his belt and pointed it at me. "Nice cloak, buddy, it might keep me warm at night. Why don't you take that off so I won't have to hurt you? And hand over that sword on your back, too."

I silently complied with the second request, quickly drawing my claymore so it made a SHING sound as the metal slid against the insides of the scabbard. I tossed the sword at the bigger man. He held his hand out to catch it by the hilt. Immediately, lightning surrounded the sword as the man dropped the steel on the floor. He let out a painful grunt and covered his seared palm with his other hand. A second later, the claymore returned to my hold. Good, so my sword still follows the soul-bound rule of YGGDRASIL.

Almost all high level equipment in YGGDRASIL is bound to the hands of the player who first wields it. It can be sold to a vendor, or destroyed, but not traded. Well, Raijin is indestructible and only a moron would vendor it for any amount of measly gold.

"I'm sorry, did you not want the sword?" I asked, raising it to him. His men readied themselves for battle. One of them swung a sword at me. I moved back, but not far enough as the blade nicked my cheek. The attacker smirked for a moment, and then his face became stricken with horror. I felt the wound on my face gradually closing until there wasn't a scratch left. Blood was still present, but that was it.

While most races cannot passively heal in combat without some type of active spell, the oni race has the passive ability of self-regeneration, as do a couple of other races – though their regeneration works in different ways. Vampires, for example, must kill a non-mechanical creature to restore a small portion of their health.

Oni can heal one percent of their total health per second, at all times. But, if we evade damage for ten seconds, that healing rate increases to six percent per second. It's almost useless for PvP combat, though, since players at maxed level are capable of dealing enormous amounts of burst damage. Many players are even able to kill others through a stun or a loss-of-control ability such as disorient, forcing the target to sluggishly walk around uncontrollably. Such abilities can be resisted or fully negated through items or other abilities, of course.

Still, it has its uses in PvE combat, as well as dungeon and raid settings, assuming the player can evade damage until their healing ability increases to six percent per second. However, such a feat is normally very difficult as group-wide damage-dealing abilities are common among bosses. Some aren't very strong, but even weak damage, including damage over time spells, will restart the timer for the oni's increased health regeneration.

The health regeneration passive racial ability stacks with Raijin's four percent per second, granting a total of five percent total health regenerated per second. That, alone, makes regeneration powerful. With Raijin's passive healing, along with an oni's racial passive healing, I'm a very difficult opponent to take down. I don't have as much defenses as warriors or tanks, but being a war wizard with dark knight and paladin abilities means I have enough physical and magical defense to at least not explode, in one hit, from powerful attacks.

Those defensive buffs can be dispelled, though, sadly. If they are dispelled, they will have a recast period of thirty seconds, more than enough time for me to blow up from ample amounts burst damage. Some might call Raijin's healing ability overpowered. To them, I say screw off. It took a total of two years from my life, up to six hours of play time per day, to create. This healing ability is mine by right and merit... and a massive lack of a social life.

I wiped the blood off and looked around – okay, eight of them. I thought of fighting them myself, but this is a good time to test some of my other weaker abilities.

'Summon Oni,' I said speaking the words in my mind as three creatures donned in enchanted garb appeared around me. All three are oni and perform different combat specialties. The first is a male who dons a suit of heavy plate armor, carrying a sword and shield. The second is a female wearing leather armor and wields a bow. The third is also a female but wears a magic robe with a staff in hand.

The Summon Oni spell is a racial ability that all oni, in YGGDRASIL, possess. When used, three lesser oni appear around the caster: a melee brawler, a ranged damage-dealer, and a dabbler of the mystic arts. According to lore, these three were the first ones to practice combat via sword, bow, and magic. They taught their art to their fellow oni, beginning the practice of warfare for the entire race. None of the summoned oni wore helmets, allowing their white hair to flow against the wind as if submerged in water like mine was before my body automatically applied a human disguise.

While the spell provides the caster with three pet-like units, that are easily defeated by player characters of a similar level to the caster. Although classified as pets, which means their power scales with that of their caster, the hp and mp of the summoned oni are capped at level 65. This means the ability is popular for low-level and even mid-level oni, but not so much during high levels. Another down side is its long cool down of twelve hours, but this is somewhat remedied by subtracting three hours from the remaining cool down with the death of each summoned oni.

The ability has no duration; the summoned oni fight by their caster's side until they die.

Unfortunately, the caster is limited to controlling three lesser oni at a time. Otherwise, the caster can have many oni under their command if they wait long enough and cast the spell each time it's off cool down. But since the summoned oni are easily dispatched of by players, dungeon monsters, and raid bosses, high leveled oni players don't bother with this skill. The men around me began to shake with fear as they retreated behind their leader. My summoned oni are supposed to be mid-tier status, at best, so these men should easily be able to dispose of them.

Still, I'd like to try it out. The outcome, however, caused my jaw to drop.

Two bandits engaged the melee oni, a tall and lean male named Shizuki, but ended up with their heads lobbed off with a single swing. The archer oni, a lithe female named Shizuku, pulled her bow string, creating three arrows of mana between her fingers, and let them fly, piercing through three more bandits. The mage, a slender woman named Shizuko, raised her staff as two bolts of lightning came from the sky and roasted two more bandits, leaving only the leader alive. I was speechless… these men are weak! My left palm met my face really hard. The bandit leader backed away until his back was pressed against a tree.

"Monsters! Get away from me!" he turned around to run the opposite direction when a mana arrow pierced through his heart, causing his body to slump cold on the floor.

"Was that his heart? Good shot," the warrior commented, blowing my mind. Wait, they talk? They never talked in YGGDRASIL, not even speech bubbles. They had grunts, but that's about it. Huh… I wonder if I can have conversations with them.

"It was no trouble," she said, turning to me. "There are two more humans, sire, but I sense no malevolence from them. What are your orders?"

The two elders froze in terror at the sight that befell them. I walked up to them, took a deep breath, and showed them my true face. I looked at the older woman.

"You weren't seeing things. This is my true face. I'm sorry for deceiving you earlier," I said. "While it's true that I'm a traveler… sort of… I'm not human, but I also mean no harm. My name is Kaiserius Vol-Charis."

"Kai… serius? What an odd name…" the old woman mumbled. I didn't disagree. YGGDRASIL has the strangest naming system I've ever seen in any DMMORPG. She turned to my summoned oni, for a moment, before turning to me. "You are monsters, but you don't mean to harm us? Such a strange world we live in."

"Yeah, no kidding," I said. I'm still trying to wrap my head around it, myself. I used my shape shifting skill to returned to my human disguise and glanced to my oni. "Hey, can you three put on a human disguise? I can, so maybe you can too."

"Of course, my lord," said Shizuko as a bright light surrounded her and her siblings. When the light faded, they took the guise of ordinary humans donned in combat equipment. All three sported raven-black hair and chocolate-brown eyes. "Oh, by the way…"

The archer tossed me a hair band from her pocket. I used it to tie my hair, now sporting a low pony tail with a few strands of long bangs down my face. Shizuki's hair was cut short, but spiky. Shizuku's hair was much longer, falling down to her back. Shizuko's hair was mid-length and layered.

"Amazing," the old man complimented. "You all definitely pass for humans."

"Oni are practitioners of various styles of magic. Such a simple spell to blend to our surroundings is child's play," Shizuki commented. He says that. But in reality, he and the two others have the non-combat sub-job of shape shifting.

"I see," said the old man, looking to me. "By the way, your friends came out of nowhere. Assuming you summoned them, are you some kind of magic caster?"

I was quiet for a few seconds. How does he know of the magic caster class? It's an actual class chosen by adventurers at the tutorial stage. Magic caster is a general term for a player who primarily uses magic for combat. It's a class that branches out to various different jobs, including the elemental sorcerer, the dark necromancer, and the holy priest.

Mages and sorcerers command the arcane and elemental forces of the world, bringing all manner of destruction to their enemies. Dark necromancers practice black and unholy magic, wielding both against their foes. Holy priests use their magic to heal and support their allies while smiting evil. Come to think of it, wasn't Momonga a necromancer? He loves this game more than I do. I wonder if he's trapped in this world too.

I shook my head, nah. Even that guy has a life – he doesn't play this game 24/7… or does he?

"No, I'm not a magic caster," came my answer. "I'm actually a war wizard – a warrior and mage hybrid. I have great proficiency with melee and magic skills, but I don't have the physical constitution to wear metal armor the way warriors can."

"A war wizard? Perhaps where you hail from. But, around here, the closest identification would be a battle mage. Though, I suppose the two titles are similar enough," he responded.

I don't have the desire to correct him in saying war wizards differ in that their defensive stats are much lower due to their inability to wear plate armor. The trade-off is higher offensive power and mobility, in comparison. While war wizards can strengthen their defenses using magic, the buffs are inferior to the raw level of protection granted by plate armor. A war wizard can be instantly killed, in one blow, by extremely powerful attacks from raid bosses, but a battle mage will live. It will still hurt a lot, but they won't be down for the count.

However, with my high health regeneration passives, if the attack doesn't kill me, I'll heal right back up in no time. The latter class didn't exist in YGGDRASIL, but it did in other fantasy games that I've played in the past. Hmm, now that I think about it, the battle mage has a very similar class fantasy and skill set to armored mages of YGGDRASIL. I guess they might be the same but with different names.

"Anyway, thank you for saving me and my wife. If you want, we can still take you to E-Rantel. We actually need to make a pit-stop at Carne Village, to drop off some goods for a family friend, but we'll be well on our way afterward. Three additional mouths to feed means you definitely need to find some work."

Carne Village? Another location, huh? It would be wise to remember these towns and cities since I have no idea how long I'll be stuck in this strange world for.

"We ancient oni have long since passed into the afterlife," said Shizuko. "We appear to you in flesh, but our bodies are merely constructs of magic now. We bleed if injured, but we do not require food, drink, or sleep to function."

"Oh, well, all right," said the old woman as I hopped inside the coach. The old woman climbed back on the front of the coach. The old man approached the corpse of the bandit leader and removed a silver pendant worn around his neck. He made his way to me and handed the piece of metal to my hand.

"I've heard of this man, a rogue adventurer who once worked for the adventurer's guild in E-Rantel. He is worth a half-dozen dill and two handfuls of krill. My wife and I are old and happy; we have no need for such a bounty. However, since you're a traveler, I assume you will have need of some money. This should get you enough to start your journey in these parts," he said.

"Wow, thanks," I said, pocketing the silver pendant. It had a name engraved on it, some strange writing that I couldn't read. I assume it's the name of the bandit leader. Hmm, written language… I'll have to learn that in order to survive around here. It seems the people here speak Japanese, but the written letters are not kanji or any symbols I've seen in high school or college.

"Take it to the receptionist in the adventurer's guild at E-Rantel. She will give you the bounty that was set for the bandit leader," he said, making his way to the front of the coach and climbed it.

Since my summons don't require sustenance, I instructed them to maintain a perimeter around the coach for protection. It seemed to put the old couple at ease, anyway. I, on the other hand, am quite hungry. I have enough energy to fight, but my stomach feels like it hasn't had food in at least half a day. Considering how weak the bandits we encountered were, however, I doubt much of anything around here will pose much of a threat. Also, if my lesser oni fall in battle, I can just summon them again in later. If anyone or anything gets passed them, I'll know it's time to get serious.

Until then, a nap is in order.

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 _There's chapter one. Do your reading and (maybe) reviewing thing (be gentle... hopefully). I've written about five more chapters, but they're chock-full of errors and holes that I just recently discovered through my journey of the wiki site and ideas that came up over the past few weeks. I need to read through and update them, before posting them. And even then, with my track record, I'm almost sure there will still be tons of mistakes._

 _ **EDIT #1:** I didn't catch this earlier, but Qarzulen, Spirit of the Oni Gods, is supposed to be worn on the right hand, not the left. This mistake has been fixed._


	2. Chapter 2

**Review replies from previous chapter (I really wish you guest reviewers had email accounts I can just reply to instead of doing it this way. Oh well, this method is fine too. It just takes up word count, is all).**

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 **Random Reviewer:** _I'm fairly aware that my current method of determining stats doesn't work, it's just the heavily lazy simpleton version. For example, when I say the OC has a 9/10 melee attack rating, I don't mean he literally has 9/100 or 90/100 rating. It's pretty much to your discretion on how you will read this, but basically my 9/10 is to be considered as 'high,' in a table that rates from lowest, low, average, above average, high, and very high. Imagine this: Ainz has a 'very high' MP stat. My 'very high' would be 10/10 or above. But don't worry, I'm looking into the stat things. You just probably won't see another update into OC's combat stats because, far as I know, he's the only one with customized stats made by me. As for his lesser oni minions... I think that's explained somewhere towards the end of this chapter. It's an even simpler and lazier stat rating determination method than I did for my OC._

 _I mentioned it in chapter 1, but I'm seriously not a reader of the light novels. I know they exist, and I know of the character card sheet things but I just couldn't be bothered to understand them regardless of how easy they might have been to pick up. I literally picked up this anime, watched some episodes (still watching), did some EXTREMELY light reading on the wiki pages, and started writing. That's it. I know I should read the light novel to get a better grasp on this whole thing, but there are aspects I'd like to make up myself without relying on light novel information._

 **Guest:** _Yeah, I'm aware of the high tier damage nullification passive, and I purposely did not include it. If I do, and it's still in the clouds, it won't work the way it did in Overlord. Why? Because I wanted to flesh out a little more weakness to my OC than a simple low melee and magic defense stat that is alleviated with gear enchantments and job/class buffs. Another reason is I didn't want to make him completely immortal to sixth-tier, and below, attacks. Personally, I think that would make things boring. When he takes hits from those mid-to-low tier attacks, the damage is heavily mitigated by buffs granted from his dark knight and paladin jobs, which are both tanks (that means that the added defensive buffs are quite high). The total damage he takes, then, becomes negligible and is healed very quickly through his 5% total health per second regeneration ability. So he, effectively, takes no damage from sixth-tier, or weaker, attacks. It does hurt him, but it's more akin to a flea bite than the bite of a lion. The wound, then, disappears quickly. I'm not sure I mentioned this but he has a higher evasion stat than Ainz, much higher, which is added to his total defenses._

 _Also, and bear with me a bit longer, if he had the sixth-tier damage nullification, AND his health regeneration, that would be more overpowered than what I originally had in mind. I mean, even Ainz doesn't have self-regen (as far as I know. And even if he did, he doesn't have it here). OC even has a skill that grants god mode (Oni Ascension). Again, as far as I know, even Ainz doesn't have god mode. That's why I had to make an equalizer of sorts. Ainz is immortal against first through sixth-tier attacks. OC takes the hit, but it's heavily mitigated by his defensive enchantments and passive buffs. The rest is quickly healed up. When all that is factored, including his much higher evasion rate (he won't just be standing still in a fight), I'd even consider OC to have an equal to or higher survival rate than Ainz against high-tier attacks of seventh through tenth-tier. I'm almost sure super-tier attacks would blow up OC from full to nothing, but that's where his coffin-cheating skill comes in, Oni Awakening, plus his divine-tier ring which forcibly triggers Oni Awakening when he takes a hit that should, otherwise, kill him. If Ainz takes a fatal hit, he's dead. If OC takes a fatal hit, he's immediately healed to half health and enters a powerful transformation. Not only does he take even lesser damage in that form, but he's still regenerating a lot of health over time. At half health, he needs a mere 10 seconds to heal up to full hp, and that is without active healing - all from his passive regeneration._

 **Guest - TL;DR:** _I guess what I'm trying it say is that I wanted to give him my own version of a high-tier damage nullification ability that helps him all around from even tenth-tier spells. It doesn't nullify, per se, but the end result is the same (I also call that balance... sort of). The process is what's different. After all, this is fanfiction. I don't want everything, or even almost everything, to be exactly the same as it is in the series._

 **For both reviewers I'm replying to:** _Although this is primarily an Overlord story, I'm writing this with elements, mechanics, and ideas of other video games/online games in mind without stepping into the boundaries of a crossover fanfiction. If you see my character with low defense stats, he usually has something else to compensate for it, and it's usually got nothing to do with his raw combat stat numbers. His stats are not the be-all-end-all of his abilities. Everything is taken into consideration, such as passive skills, equipment enchantments, active transformations, skills that activate should he take fatal damage, and even abilities taken from his dark knight and paladin jobs (think of the cross-skill system in Final Fantasy XIV if you've played it). I only displayed his combat stats on chapter 1 to give readers a rough idea of his combat capabilities._

 _This Overlord story will include bits of almost every single game I've played in the past. Many of these references to games will go unnoticed by most readers, but all of it is taken into consideration with regards to my OC's total combat power and potential. The game references also affect other characters, not just the main protagonist. Some are not even combat-related, just pieces included for the sole purpose of amusement._

 _Well, I hope I was able to cover your plights or questions. Now, on with chapter 2._

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 **DISCLAIMER: I do not own Overlord. If I did, Aura and Mare would be dressed in cute animal onesie outfits.**

 **Overlord – Chapter 2**

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After three days of travel, we finally arrived at E-Rantel but not before making a brief stop to Carne Village. We learned that the village suffered a massacre from armored knights that possibly hailed from the Baharuth Empire, the neighbor-country of Re-Estize. The two countries supposedly hated each other's guts and are in a constant state of war, sending soldiers to fight near the borders of E-Rantel. I also learned, from the village chief, that a third kingdom exists to the south of the previous two countries, the Slane Theocracy.

The chief suspects that the Slane Theocracy coerced the massacre to keep other two countries at edge with each other. But, that's simple speculation.

Two things bugged me a little, however. The first was when I thought back to the lore of YGGDRASIL. I could have sworn that "Slane Theocracy" was the name of an ancient guild, comprised of powerful members well-versed in blade and magic. I could be wrong, though. The second thing that irked me, though mostly gaining the brunt of my interest from my limited attention span was when the chief, and several of the surviving villagers, mentioned the name "Ainz Ooal Gown." They said it was the name of the magic caster who saved them from total annihilation from the imperial knights.

I pondered on that, the name of the old guild I was once a member of. I refer to it in the past tense because I am no longer a member, even before I was transported to this new world. About a month before I started the racial quest to obtain Bishamon and the Oni Ascension skill, I sent Momonga an in-game mail stating that I had to leave the guild for a solo quest I wanted to do. He wasn't online at the moment, but I never did receive a reply from him. Due to the quest's requirements, I had to delete him from my buddy list which is probably why he never received an in-game message whenever I logged in or logged out.

I've kept a copy of the letter I sent him. On it was a recorded time stamp of when I sent it to him, along with a day and date. For all intents and purposes, I was a forgotten ghost to him. We had lots of fun times in the game, and I wish I could have bid my farewell to him before being summoned here. Still, the name Ainz Ooal Gown brings me some hope. Momonga played YGGDRASIL more than the rest of us, his guild members, did. It's possible that he was sent here as well. If so, maybe we can meet again.

Another possibility is there actually is an Ainz Ooal Gown that exists in this world prior to my arrival. Or maybe the name was being used by another player who knew of the name, back in game. Even so, I'd like to meet any other player who is stuck in this world with me, from YGGDRASIL.

The old woman stayed with a younger relative, to put her at ease due to the loss of her parents, while the rest of us continued to E-Rantel. My driver, loathe as I am to refer to him as such, dropped off his package to the village chief before we left. When we arrived, he dropped me off about a block away from the adventurer's guild, a two-story building built with concrete and a cement roof, before parting ways. I took a few steps toward the guild when I noticed many pairs of eyes looking my way, and I don't think they're looking at my summoned creatures.

I decided to use an spell that would cast a disguise over the target of their gazes, my black leather cloak. The spell could, also, alter the shape of the targeted items to anything I want. I'd still maintain the stats and spells cast on my equipment, but at least I won't get any more eyes on me. Suddenly, another thought came to mind. The materials needed to cast the item-disguise spell probably don't exist in this world, so I shouldn't risk using them so carelessly.

I slipped into an alley, and removed my legendary-tier equipment, replacing them with a light brown scarf wrapped around my neck, a pair of black long sleeves, and a pair of loose brown pants; clothes I got from the old man who had too many to spare – said something about his wife loving to knit. I took my gloves off but kept my boots and steel belt on. In YGGDRASIL, belts count as accessories, along with pendants, rings, and earrings, and are not affected by the armor penalty I would have taken if my, say, greaves were made of steel instead of cloth or leather.

I stored my removed equipment into my pouch – they transformed into little marbles so I could put them inside without hassle. My pouch still hung on a holster, on my belt. Due to the weight of my pouch, and mostly the loose tying of my belt, it hung unevenly on me, leaning on the side of my pouch – to the left.

Still, this much was able to take away many wandering eyes.

I gave the diseased bandit leader's pendant to the guild receptionist, who thanked me and handed me six dill and about fifty-five krill. This amount is more than enough to get me a decent meal, a horse, and, maybe, a few nights at the local inn.

I also registered myself as an adventurer of E-Rantel, but started at the lowest rank of copper. All adventurers were given a necklace with a small, metal-plated, dog-tag attached to both ends of the necklace. The dog-tag can be removed, but only by the guild receptionist as it was enchanted. As an adventurer proves himself through jobs, varying in difficulty, the guild receptionist, with the permission and blessing of the leaders of the association, will grant promotions via a rank-up system. Starting at copper, I can rise through seven ranks: iron, silver, gold, platinum, mythril, orichalcum, and adamantite.

I was informed, by the receptionist, that many adventurers don't make it past platinum rank, but some eventually reach mythril with even fewer grasping orichalcum. The most powerful adventurers in the world hold the adamantite rank. I'd like to meet them if only to test my mettle. Then again, I shouldn't be too excited. After all, my summoned oni defeated bandits a few days ago, and they didn't even use their special skills – they used default attacks.

I'd like to think that there are more powerful opponents, though, and that the bandits were little more than highwaymen lacking any sort of combat experience. But, if the bandit leader was a former silver-ranked adventurer, iron and copper adventurers probably boast less power than farm animals… which is just sad. Perhaps the power difference between each rank above, say, platinum, are vast. But maybe that's just wishful thinking.

I ordered a meal from the tavern, next door, and brought it over to the adventurer's guild so I could eat while deciding which job to take on the bulletin board. While I still don't know the written language in this world, the job applications have a color-coded stamp at the bottom that mirrored the rank colors for adventurers. I'll have to assume that the stamp colors on each application ranks in difficulty from copper color to the bluish-green color that is adamantite.

As I ate my meal, Shizuku and Shizuko gained a lot of unnecessary attention from the men around the area. I can hear them snickering, probably thinking of lewd thoughts about the two human-disguised oni. I decided to think nothing else of it, as my summons have been ordered to retaliate to even just a touch from someone else other than me. I also asked them not to kill anyone unless their well-being was jeopardized. I eyed a copper-stamped application, attempting to read the requirements for the job, as a pair walked into the room.

I spotted them from the corner of my eye, a tall man clad in a polished, black, heavy-plate armor with gold trimmings on the edges. A red cape was worn around his neck and covered the upper-right side of his armored body. Two large swords, the same color as the armor, were crossed behind his back, under the cape. Some of the denizens seemed intimidated by his battle gear, but what really vexed me was the young woman beside him. She stood, probably, two and a half heads shorter than her companion and sported a brown cloak over her body that revealed only her leather boots and eastern face. Her skin was fair, and her black hair was tied in an elegant ponytail.

Quite stunning, really, but that wasn't what boggled my attention. She looks very familiar, somehow.

"Those two are very powerful," Shizuko commented. I nodded with a grunt. They even look powerful, especially the big armored guy.

"That so? I wonder if the big guy would let me spar with him," I muttered, the jobs on the bulletin board no longer interesting me… mostly due to the fact that I can't read any of them. The pair walked toward me, the armored man first, heading towards the job postings board. His female companion walked by me but her arm accidentally brushed against my shoulder.

"My apologies, it won't happ-" she paused, raising her hand to the spot on her arm where she collided with me. Her face turned slowly, eyes widening a bit as hers met mine. The larger fellow glanced to his comrade.

"Nabe, is something wrong?" he asked. Nabe? What a strange coincidence, it almost sounds like Narberal, a member of the Pleiades unit in The Great Tomb of Nazarick.

Narberal Gamma, I believe, was created by Nishikienrai… well, sort of. Some of our guild members were responsible for the creation of most of the Pleiades' female members, but I was the one who designed all of their physical bodies and outfits. The only one I personally created, from top to bottom, was the predator slime known as Solution Epsilon. I made her to be my ideal girlfriend, or, at least, her human disguise. Come to think of it, why did I choose the maid theme? Was it a request from the others? I can't even remember anymore.

Nabe took a few seconds before responding to her companion.

"This man, he reminded me of someone when my arm accidentally brushed against his shoulder," she said. I continued eating, but eyed her still. The armored man turned to me and stepped forward.

"Forgive my companion, sir," he said, extending his hand. "She and I are travelers from another land."

I shook his hand.

"Is that right? Well, let me introduce myself first. My name is-" now I was cut off as four youngsters approached us. Their interest was in the tall man, whom they referred to as "mister," which tells me they're unfamiliar with each other.

The six of them walked up to the second floor of the building, a place said to be reserved for meetings. I shrugged my shoulders and finished my meal. I looked to the job postings board again and snatched one that had a copper-colored stamp on the bottom, then brought it over to the receptionist with my summons behind me after Shizuki threw my trash into a nearby disposal container.

"I'd like to take up this job, if you don't mind," I said to her. She took the parchment and scanned its contents. Suddenly, a man burst through the door to the guild and quickly made his way to the receptionist. He bent to her and whispered something to her ear. Her eyes widened at the given information.

"Are you sure?" she asked in a panic. The man nodded. "I understand. I'll send a team over."

"What's going on?" I asked as the man left the complex.

"That was a scout, returning from Carne Village. On his way here, he had to take the long route due to a pack of boar-men making their way to the village he came from. Using some magic, he managed to pick up some talk from the boar-men, one of whom said it would be fun to pillage a bunch of humans from the village up ahead," she said. "The scout also mentioned that a group of militia men from a village that Carne would often trade with, are going to try and stop the demi-humans."

Shit.

Normally, I probably wouldn't care but this is the real thing now. The people who are going to get hurt, or killed, are real humans with hopes and dreams for the future. They're not just a random assortment of polygons made to look like humans. This isn't YGGDRASIL, that much is clear, and my instinct tells me to save those people. Plus, the old woman is staying there with a relative. She and her husband were kind enough to give me a ride to E-Rantel. I did save their lives, but that's not the point. I can't just let another massacre take place.

"If you're up for it, I ask that you and your team slay a pack of boar-men who were seen making camp under a tall tree, just half a day's walk, west of here. There's a path, near them, that leads to Carne Village," she said.

I narrowed my eyes.

Carne Village was already attacked by a bunch of knights. I was just there, and there was no one around capable of fending off intruders. There was a pack of goblins, summoned by a young woman, the granddaughter of the old woman, though. She brought them forth using a Goblin Summoning Flute, an item that existed in YGGDRASIL. I didn't have the time to ask her about it because the old man had to leave for E-Rantel quickly, to conduct more business. The goblins were all under level 13, about twenty or fewer in number. They'll be enough to fend off the boar-men, but I can't risk the possibility of village casualties, especially the old woman and her granddaughter.

"I have relayed what I know, about this job, to you. Will you still accept this job and intercept the boar-men before they reach the village?" she asked. "If you want, I can send more men with you."

"That won't be necessary. I accept this job and will be leaving immediately," I said.

"Very well. Also, cut off the tusks of the slain boar-men, there should be ten pairs of tusks. There is an eleventh pair, one of the two tusks are gold and it belongs to the leader of the group. If you bring me that tusk, I have been instructed to give you a bonus reward," she said.

"Okay, thanks for the information," I said, walking out of the building.

I made note to visit the stables first, and bought myself a brown stallion from one of the horse breeders. For some reason that escaped me, there was quite a line for horses today. I was told by one of the customers that this sort of thing is common since the horse breeders in E-Rantel were among the best in the country. Since my summons are constructs of magic, they don't feel fatigue from non-combat-related actions and can travel tirelessly, so they don't need horses. Also, if I bought them horses and they were to fall in combat, I'd have three horses to take care of on top of the one I'll have bought for myself.

When I arrived at the gates of E-Rantel, I met up with the armored man, Nabe, and five other people. Four of the five were the adventurers who requested to speak with the caped man. The fifth, a young man with hair bangs so long that it covered his eyes, was unfamiliar to me – he was mounted on a wooden carriage that was pulled by a single horse. They look like they're leaving the city as well.

"It's that man again," I heard Nabe say as I passed her. I glanced back but continued to ride on. Much as I wanted to know why I looked familiar to her, I have a job to do right now. People's lives are at stake, not just NPCs.

I lost count of how much time had passed since I saw my prior acquaintances, not that I was actually keeping count. I passed by a tall tree and immediately picked up the putrid scent of a creature that hasn't bathed in an unknown period of time. There were also many foot prints on the ground not only belonged to a demi-human race, but their stench allowed me to paint a mental picture as to how they might look – hairy and ugly.

I pressed onward and saw about eleven of them charging down a path that led to Carne Village. The old couple and I used this very same road to get there. Some poorly equipped men were fighting them, but they didn't seem to stand a chance as they were getting cut down and crushed to the ground. I ordered my oni to take down the grunts as I dismounted my horse and leaped in the air, landing just behind the boar-man with a golden tusk, prepared for battle. However, I was quickly disappointed when I sensed their power – they're probably a level or two higher than the bandits my lesser oni disposed of a few days ago.

The creature watched as my unit tore through its troops. The human men were in awe at their performance.

The golden tusk boar-man let out a sharp roar and rushed at me with a stone club in hand. My shoulders slumped as I, lightly, stomped at the ground, causing a slab of rock to form and slam at the beast-man. The impact of the blow propelled my target in the air. I drew my claymore and absentmindedly slashed at the air, conjuring a fire ball that instantly charred the flesh of the boar-man before it could land on the ground.

Not even a minute had passed and the threat was already completely neutralized. None of the men were killed, but many were gravely injured. I sighed and tapped the tip of my sword to the ground, casting a group-wide holy spell that restored everyone to full health.

The men stood on their own, grunting, examining their bodies for wounds that had closed and pain that could no longer be felt. I sighed, getting myself worked up for nothing, as my lesser oni proceeded in cutting the tusks from our enemies, including the leader's golden tusk. One of the men approached me, bewildered.

"Who are you?" he asked. "My group and I would have been killed by those monsters if not for you."

"My name is Kaiserius Vol-Charis," I said to him.

"Right, Kaiserius, thank you for saving us," he said, voice still shaking a bit. "That earth spell you used with a tap of your foot, then that fire ball you conjured with a swing of your sword, and then the healing spell that closed all our wounds, they were powerful – easily second-tier spells, right?"

I didn't answer him, not with words anyway. They weren't even first-tier spells, just basic magic arts gained from the tutorial stage – well, minus the group-wide healing spell. That one is first-tier.

More to the point, this man considered them to be powerful. I'm starting to feel greatly disappointed at this world's understanding of magic. A level 1 magic-caster adventurer could have casted the spells I just did with little difficulty. I gave the man a nod of approval, with a lazy grunt, as I returned to my horse after my summoned oni handed me the tusks of our enemies. They were even wrapped together with a binding spell.

"I'm going to return these to the guild at E-Rantel," I said, unenthusiastically riding on my horse with my oni following behind. Eventually, I met up with Nabe, her armored companion, and the five humans who traveled with them, towards the direction of Carne Village. "Oh, hey, it's you guys."

"Hi," the warrior wielding a sword and shield greeted. "You were at the guild, at E-Rantel, weren't you?"

"I was, yes," I replied almost soullessly. "I just came back from an emergency quest assigned by the guild. Apparently, some demi-humans were making their way to Carne Village in order to pillage it. I was told that they suffered an attack from some knights, a couple of days back, and are still trying to recover from it."

"Carne Village, you say?" the armored warrior asked. I nodded slowly. He stepped forward and extended his hand. "I didn't get the chance to introduce myself to you, earlier. My name is Momon. And my partner is Nabe."

"Sweet and beautiful, Nabe, dearest!" exclaimed a blond ranger. The cloaked woman rolled her eyes. I took Momon's hand and shook it.

"Who told you that Carne Village suffered an attack?" he asked. I retracted my hand from his.

"The villagers did, of course. I was there, yesterday, when I took a ride from an old couple to E-Rantel. There was an old woman, the wife of the elder gentleman who I rode with. She's the grandmother of a young woman there, who apparently is the leader of a pack of warrior-goblins," I said. Momon nodded. "Why do you ask?"

I kept my eyes on him. Something gave me strange vibes about this guy, and it's not just his name bearing a resemblance to Momonga's. There's also his armor. I believe Momonga used it to tank for low-leveled heteromorphic and demi-human players, back in YGGDRASIL, when we would often be hunted down by the human-type races. I think Touch Me really had a hand in getting Momonga to fight for justice instead of vengeance.

I miss them both. I hope Touch Me, whoever he is in real life, manages to settle that dispute with his wife. I believe that's the main reason why he quit the game.

"Nothing. Thank you for your response," he said, returning to the side of his partner.

"By the way, I didn't get a chance to introduce myself either. My name is…" hold on. Why do I keep getting the vibe that I've met Momon and Nabe somewhere? There are some crazy similarities between their names and Momonga and Narberal, along with Momon's black plate armor that Momonga used for helping non-human adventurers in YGGDRASIL. I'll admit that, but it's still too much of a far cry to assume that they could be the ones I'm thinking of. Still, I shouldn't try to rouse any suspicion. Also, while I did leave Momonga a letter when I quit the guild, I'm still unsure as to whether he actually got my mail or not.

A few months into the collapse of YGGDRASIL, a lot of the game masters had already left for a new project, and they're the ones who make sure in-game mail is properly sent from one player to another through the mail box function. Normally, it's automatic and they don't have to worry about it. But, I believe some players complained about the mail system being bugged, that sometimes their mails would simply be lost in the wind and the target player would never receive the message or any package attached to it.

It's possible that it happened with the letter I sent to Momonga. If that's so, then it's probably really hard for him to forgive me for leaving him at a bad time in his life. He didn't really have friends outside the game, so the guild members were all he had in the form of social interaction. He poured much of his resources into the game just so he could play with us. Now that I think about it, I abandoned him for greedy reasons – just because I wanted more power.

In the our server, I was already one of the most powerful oni players since I was among the few who was able to obtain a fully-powered Raijin, along with the Qarzulen ring. Technically, I didn't need more power – my DPS often overwhelmed even fully-focused warrior or mage players despite the fact that my main job couldn't use tenth-tier spells with the exception of the lightning element... sort of. I could have spent the last few weeks of the game with the guy who kept us all together, the guild together.

If Momonga never forgave me for leaving him alone, I would totally understand. I'd hate it, as I considered him a close friend, but I would understand nonetheless.

I mentally shook myself out of my thoughts. I still need to give them a name. If the Momon is actually Momonga, a possibility that I shouldn't take lightly, I can't let him know who I am just yet. He could be the only other player character from YGGDRASIL, in this world, apart from me. If Momonga ended up hating me, I'd rather not risk Momon doing the same.

"Kai, my name is Kai," I said to them. Momon nodded. "Well, I need to head back to E-Rantel and complete my quest. Good meeting you all."

"Actually, if you don't mind, perhaps you'd like to travel with us for a little bit?" asked the boy with the overgrown bangs. "My name is Nfirea Bareare, an apprentice alchemist at E-Rantel. I hired these fellows to protect me as I travel to a forest near Carne Village. I need to gather some supplies to further my alchemic studies. I don't think I have the resources to pay another person, but you look a bit down-in-the-dumps. Perhaps you could use some company."

I smirked lightly as my oni turned to me, awaiting my response. The kid read me like an open book – I'm pretty miserable right now. If I travel with them, I might pick up some clues that'll tell me whether Momon and Nabe truly are Momonga and Narberal. If they are, then perhaps I can make up some of my sin by spending time with them. I owe it to Momonga, my friend.

"All right, I accept. No payment necessary," I said, noticing Shizuku smiling sincerely, along with the other two. I guess they can sense the discomfort of their summoner, a feature that didn't exist in YGGDRASIL. With that set, we returned on the path towards Carne Village, getting to know each other.

Nfirea asked about my companions. I didn't want to tell him they were just pet-type summons, though that would have been the honest truth.

They introduced themselves using their given names, which are random depending on the oni who summoned them. How their names are so similar to each other's is beyond me. They didn't have adventurer dog-tags, explaining that they're only helping me to ascend in rank – they don't care for the rewards as much as I do. I also learned of the names of the four others traveling with us, a group of silver-plate adventurers: Peter Mork, the warrior-tank Lukeluther Volve, the ranged specialist who had a thing for Nabe; Dyne Woodwonder, the druid and healer; Ninya, the magic caster.

From the lack of power I'm sensing from them, I can tell they're either a newbie adventurer group or just a very weak one. Perhaps I shouldn't keep them to the same standards as the adventurers of YGGDRASIL. Far as I've seen, it just wouldn't be fair. But, for people who take up their respective jobs, they're not very well equipped.

Peter, for example, is the tank. He has a sword and shield, but minimal body armor. A tank needs to survive for the party, drawing ire so the damage-dealing members can do their job with minimum interruption from the enemy. But, if the tank can't survive attacks inflicted on him, then it's a massive strain on the healer who is also responsible for keeping the party's health in as good a condition as possible. Then again, this isn't a game anymore. I doubt enemies will keep their attention on one guy when a bunch of others are beating down on them.

Does that mean to say that there's no longer an aggro table? If so, what is the point of the tank role? Do they merely use skills that force the enemy to attack them? That skill, a Taunt-like ability, was common among tanks of YGGDRASIL, but that can't possibly work the same way here, can it? Unless the Taunt skill, in this world, assuming it exists, has an added mechanism that strictly forces the target to attack the taunter, I don't see why enemies would.

Peter definitely needs more armor, the heavier kind. The bronze shoulder armor, boots, leather forearm guards, and leather tunic he's got simply won't cut it. This brings me back to my early days as an YGGDRASIL player. While war wizard is my first and main job, I knew I'd have to raise one or two plate-beefy jobs to fortify my defenses. I shook my head once more. Seriously, quit comparing them to YGGDRASIL adventurers, Kaiserius. These guys are cut from a different cloth… a very different cloth. I almost want to donate my money to them so they can purchase better gear.

And Peter isn't the only problem. Lukeluther's wooden hunting bow makes for a poor weapon. I mean, it might get the job done against unarmored targets, but the quality of his string, the stock, and his ordinary arrows, may not have the umph to pierce through armor of decent quality. I hope he knows some spells to enhance his attack power. Dyne and Ninya are spell casters, so they get a pass on armor. It seems druids wear leather armor, around here. That or Dyne has nothing better than an old, stitched-up tunic for protection.

We took a slight detour from the path I used to intercept the boar-men, earlier. I suppose the main reason is due to a nearby stream where Nfirea's horse could grab a drink. The creature did just that, as did mine. I dismounted and stretched a bit before approaching my oni team.

"Not a bad looking place, around here, huh?" I asked them.

"Yes, you're right," said Shizuko. "Still, we must be at a constant state of alert. The enemy could turn up at any moment."

Shizuku knelt and placed her hand on the grassy ground.

"She's right. I feel something, footsteps. They're quite far, so we have time to settle and strategize," she said as she stood. "I'm not sure what they are, but there are many. Some footsteps are louder than others. The softer steps seem to belong to smaller creatures than the louder ones."

"Could be more boars," Shizuki suggested.

"Perhaps, but I won't know until they get closer," said the archer. Dyne approached us.

"Are you all doing well?" he kindly asked.

"Yeah, just enjoying the great outdoors," I responded. The druid nodded with a smile as we turned to Nabe, Momon, and Lukeluther, who seemed to be making a scene.

I know of his interest in Nabe, but the girl clearly states that he's less than a cockroach to her. That puts a few more coins in the jar that she may really be Narberal. The majority NPCs of The Great Tomb of Nazarick were designed to truly detest humans, so Nabe's responses to Lukeluther's advances are normal. There are some human NPCs in Nazarick, not to mention Lastborn, but they're different, I guess.

"So, what you're telling me is that you two are lovers after all?" the ranger pushed. I shook my head. Come on, man, don't do that.

"No, I never said that!" Nabe suddenly exclaimed, unbecoming of the cold and stoic character she's shown up until now. "Stop putting words in my mouth! Lady Albedo is the only one he needs by his side!"

That caught my attention.

Momon placed a hand on Nabe's shoulder, causing her to cease her panic, but the words had already left her mouth. Did she just say 'Lady Albedo,' as in the manager of Nazarick and leader of the floor guardians? It's getting harder and harder to ignore these coincidences. The name Albedo is unique in YGGDRASIL, as are the names of all NPCs. If Nabe mentioned Albedo, and Momon became defensive about it… hold on, why would Nabe say such a thing? Far as I recall, Tabula designed Albedo to be a total slut, befitting her race as a succubus.

Tabula also made Albedo with the setting that she would serve the guild master, which was Momonga, but not specifically be in bed with only him. A succubus enjoys bedding multiple men, not just one. A personal, one-on-one relationship would denote the possibility of romance. For Nabe to say what she did about Albedo, I can safely assume that there is some hint of romance going on between Albedo and Momon, whom I can now also assume is actually Momonga since Albedo was meant to serve him. But even so, there shouldn't be any feelings of interest between them.

Then again… as the guild master and wielder of the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown, Momonga has the power to overwrite settings to the NPCs made by the other guild members. Could he have tampered with Albedo's settings, giving her feelings for him? No, he's not that stupid; Tabula would rip the poor guy's head off if he found out that Momonga had tampered with the careful and delicate settings he placed on his creation's personality. However, Tabula quit the game some time ago and hasn't been heard of since. It's entirely possible that Momonga changed the settings with the knowledge that Tabula may never find out. If so, could he have switched the settings on any of the other NPCs?

It must get pretty lonely in Nazarick, all by himself, after all.

When the scene died down, Lukeluther got a light scolding from Peter, but it fell on deaf ears as the ranger finally caught wind of what Shizuku picked up earlier.

"Where from?" asked Peter. Lukeluther pointed behind them.

"Just past the tree line," he said. I turned to that direction and saw a pillaging party of orcs and goblins, headed our way. They probably think they've hit some serious money with us, but the only thing they've hit is a snag. If Nabe and Momon are truly the ones I know from YGGDRASIL, and recent verbal outbursts say they are, then the orcs and goblins are in for a world of hurt.

During the four-man adventurer team's strategy discussion, Peter turned to Momon for his opinion on how to handle things. Like a boss, he told them to stay with the quest escort while he and Nabe slaughters the party of demi-humans. As the fighting ensued, the four human adventurers fought seriously, taking down one goblin after another, but I doubt they have the strength to deal with the orcs. I saw Momon and Nabe walking to them, ready to turn them inside and out. Momon drew his two great swords, impressing the others with his herculean strength, as he cleaved an orc in half, across the belly.

What a show off, he's like a deity among mere mortals. I told my oni team to relax, to let them handle this. As Momon ripped the bigger enemies to shreds, the smaller ones were being handled by the less powerful adventurers. I noticed one of them slip by the tank and was headed for the healer's blind spot. I blurred to the creature, dashing to it with inhuman speed, grabbed it by the shoulder, and tossed it at the direction of its allies. I raised a palm at it.

"Combustion Mine," I muttered the name of a first-tier fire spell, causing the green creature to pulse red. I then pressed my middle finger and thumb together as I mustered a snap of my fingers. "Boom."

As the creature landed on the ground, it detonated with a fiery explosion that caught its buddies in the process. About four goblins and three orcs were caught in the blast, sending chunks of flesh and blood to the faces of their remaining numbers. The few that remained standing ceased their attacks and began retreating from combat. Nabe jumped in and finished off the rest with a first-tier chain lightning spell that punched through the abdomen of all the fleeing demi-humans.

Momon turned his head my way, approaching as I made my way back to my team. The others proceeded in cutting off ears and body parts from the slain demi-humans… gross. Well, they have to loot the corpses somehow since defeated monsters don't really drop coins and other items when they die. I've really gotta stop thinking of this place as a game world, but it's difficult not to when I still have my powers from YGGDRASIL.

"Excuse me," Momon spoke to me. I turned to him. "The spell you just used, where did you learn that?"

From a tier-one magic caster instructor.

"A scroll, I think," I said, lying through my teeth. The day he and Nabe tell me who they really are is the day when I'll confess my identity as well. Until then I'm playing in the shadows.

"I see. If you don't mind my asking, where did you obtain this scroll?"

"A random merchant on the street, selling magic items," I said. Momon nodded.

"Is that so? All right, then," he said, making his way back to Nabe. I stopped him via calling his name. "Yes?"

"Why do you ask?"

"It's a spell that's familiar to me, though a weak one. I didn't peg you to be a magic caster, given the great sword on your back," he said. I nodded, accepting that logic.

While it's common for a war wizard to use melee weapons, it's uncommon for them to use great swords or other two-handed-type weapons. Our main stat is intelligence, and our secondary stat is strength. Also, my dark knight and paladin jobs grant me a passive ten points to strength, each. And although our main stat is intelligence, if we imbue our weapons with the elements, that counts as a magic attack that scales off of our main stat. Without elemental imbues, melee strikes scale from strength.

"I didn't either," said Nabe, walking up to me. "Your use of magic is impressive, you dealt with those goblins and orcs effortlessly, like it was an everyday task that you had performed a thousand times."

Technically, she's right.

"While those monsters were obviously weak, I'm somewhat interested in seeing your true power," she said, drawing her sword. "What say you, will you accept a sparring match with me? I'd like to gauge your strength if we'll be traveling together."

"Huh, a duel?" asked Ninya, who had just finished cutting off an ear of a fallen orc. I sighed to myself as my team approached with caution. I waved my hand at them as they backed off. Ninya and the other adventurers, including Nfirea, approached us. "We really should continue with our quest, but I'm also curious as to just how skilled you are, Kai."

"Be careful not to kill him, understand?" Momon said to Nabe, who nodded. I took a few steps back, creating distance between me and my opponent.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" I asked her.

"It's a bit late to back out now," said Momon. I sighed. Nabe dashed to me, accurately swinging her sword. Her job as an armored mage gives her good expertise with melee weapons, so her precise strikes are not too strange. However, since we're leagues apart, I can easily react to her movements. I dodged a downward swing by stepping to the side and jumping several yards away.

"You have good reflexes, but we won't get anywhere if all you do is dodge my attacks," said the Pleiades member. "And, please, take this duel seriously by drawing your sword. You won't beat me otherwise."

I thought about that for a second, knowing I could easily crush her without Raijin. As I recall, when creating her body, back in Nazarick, she's supposed to be of near equal strength to my lesser oni summons. One on one, she has a chance. But if they teamed up against her, they can win with ease. My lesser oni are level 65 and their stats scale up to sixty-five percent of my stats. As I recall, Nabe is two levels under, has better gear, and her stats don't scale with anything. I let out a sigh and did as she requested, drawing my silver great sword with one hand.

My opponent raised a palm at me and released a stream of lightning.

I lazily raised my sword to block the weak attack as she blurred to my side. She swung her sword at me, which I caught with my other hand. Nabe pulled her sword away from my palm – her action drew blood from my flesh. Despite her blade on my entire palm, the cut was much smaller than it should have been, due to the passive defensive buff I have from my dark knight job. As she stepped back, I showed her my hand as the tiny wound closed on its own, earning me several gasps from my audience.

"Whoa, his hand is healing! Did he cast any spells?" asked Peter. Dyne shook his head slowly. Nabe narrowed her eyes at my ability. "Mister Kai, how is it that your body can do that? I didn't see you cast any healing magic."

"It's a trait I was born with," I said.

Technically, I'm not lying. When I created my oni, in YGGDRASIL, it came with the passive racial ability of self-regeneration. It was very slow, back then. But after raising my racial job level, it's much faster. Still, without Raijin, the healing would be considered pitiful in YGGDRASIL standards. Though, for this new world, with the very weak attacks I've seen so far, perhaps Raijin's healing effect wouldn't have been necessary. It's not something I can turn on or off, though.

"My body will heal any and all damage I suffer, regardless of my will. It doesn't consume my energy, either. It will just happen, that's it," I said to the druid.

"I see, then you must be a talent-holder," he said. If you say so, buddy. "You have an ability you were born with, much like Ninya's ability to learn magic spells twice as fast as anyone else."

"While that may be true, Dyne, I think a self-healing ability is much more impressive," said the blue-eyed spell caster. Nabe continued her melee assault on me, which I parried most of and dodged the rest.

Already bored with the duel and wanting to get on with my life, I evaded another of her melee swings, and jabbed her abdomen with the pommel of my sword. I was about to chop the back of her neck with my hand, knocking her out, when another thought crossed my mind. It wouldn't be wise for me to defeat Nabe in front of Momon. It would rouse suspicion that I don't need right now. I hesitated on the chop, giving Nabe enough time to swing her sword diagonally, from bottom to now, across my torso.

When she swung at me, she seemed a bit frustrated that my body could heal the way it could. As she struck me, I turned my body in accordance to the direction of her swing so that my back would be against my audience. It cut through my long sleeve and left a scratch on my chest. Against anyone else, her slash would have cleaved their torso in half. Against me, however, all attacks, especially sixth-tier and under, are heavily mitigated by my passive defense buffs from my dark knight and paladin jobs. The rest is healed up quickly.

This process is somewhat similar to YGGDRASIL players with the high-tier damage nullification ability, namely magic casters. All high level players have it, myself included, but only magic casters have it as a passive skill. Everyone else has it as a channeled skill, which means raising it will prevent their mp from recovering while it's active. I don't normally activate it, since my defensive buffs and regeneration make mid-to-low tier damage look insignificant anyway. Plus, if I did activate it, Nabe's weak attacks wouldn't damage me at all, including my clothes. That would rouse a lot of suspicion.

Quite frankly, I almost forgot it existed, not because I don't use it too often. At high level open-world content, dungeon and raids included, monsters don't typically use sixth-tier spells anyway. Raid bosses from said content tend to spam high level spells and abilities - the weakest ones would be seventh tier, but spells like those aren't used often either. With those bosses using high level spells, as well as open-world elite bosses doing the same, players don't normally interact with their damage nullification ability. Its primary use when we want to help out low-level players.

I knelt on the ground, placing a hand on my wound. It really didn't hurt - about as much as a small pinch - but I thought theatrics and drama were a good course of action to take in this situation. In fact, it healed almost as soon as the wound came.

"Damn," I groaned as Dyne ran to me to cast a healing spell. I raised my hand to him and shook my head. "No, save your magic power. My body can heal this."

"Are you sure?" he asked. I nodded with a smile and stood to Nabe, who sheathed her blade.

"You got me good, Nabe. I was careless," I said. I turned to them; they saw my torso clean of injuries. I muttered the name of a low-tier armor repair spell, which mended the slash on my shirt. Ninya approached me as Nabe returned to Momon. I could hear Momon scolding her partner for using deadly force, that I could have been seriously wounded if not for my healing ability. Nabe took the criticism like a champ, bowing her head for forgiveness.

"You were so cool, Kai!" he said, praising me, which felt odd. I did lose, after all. "Your healing ability is really amazing. Is that why you don't wear armor?"

"Well," I paused, forcing a grin as I scratched the back of my head. "Not exactly. Although I wield a great sword, I don't have the money to buy a full set of plate armor. In fact, I spent most of my money on my claymore. My healing ability acts as a decent line of defense, due to lack of armor, but it still hurts when I take hits – I just get over it faster than others. I guess that makes me a very inadequate war w- err… battle mage."

I keep forgetting that war wizards don't exist here. I might as well try blending in and getting the terminologies right.

"You're a battle mage?" Peter repeated. "I see, yeah, that makes sense. Battle mages wear plate armor and wield magic along with using melee weapons. Their proficiency of attack spells are strong, but pales in comparison to their defenses. I'm sure you'll one day earn a set of plate armor for yourself, Kai."

"Yup, that's the plan," I said with a chuckle, lying once more. Plate armor would slip right off of me if I tried to wear it, but they don't need to know that. "Anyway, we should get moving. Mister Nfirea has some herbs to pick, right?"

"Uhh, right," said the alchemist as we continued our way to Carne Village.

* * *

 _There it is, chapter 2. With the holidays rolling in, I won't be releasing another chapter for a while - even I have some grasp of a social life, though some parts of it don't necessarily agree with me. I wrote this chapter, along with the first five chapters, long before I decided to post this story online. I was actually twiddling my thumbs about it for a while before I thought, last night, why the hell not? There are some notes I'd like to mention, though._

 _Note #1. I know some of you might have been going "WTF?!" when you read this part; yes, I'm aware Nishikienrai is the one who completely created Narberal Gamma, from top to bottom. I'm also aware that some of the guild members fully created a member of the Pleiades. The tidbit I mentioned about them creating the Pleiades's personality and ability settings, and OC creating their bodies and possible existing transformations, that's purely on my part. To my limited understanding of the series, the Pleiades members were created from top to bottom, not the halfway "he did part of it, then I did the rest" shenanigans that I wrote on this chapter._

 _Note #2. Thanks for the reviews on the previous chapter, I hope I was able to answer your qualms or irks to a satisfactory level. I replied only to two reviewers because they were the ones who had concerns regarding chapter 1. The others only asked when I'll be updating again or gave a brief positive nudge comment. I appreciate all reviews, short or long. It means people are taking the time to read my shoddy writing, or just skimming through it, which still counts as reading in my world._

 _Note #3. With regards to main and secondary stats that I mentioned in this chapter, I'm not sure that's actually an Overlord thing. Actually, I'm pretty sure it isn't. That was a Maplestory reference (I think other games use that stat method as well) which the reader can ignore if they wish, but the point is there. In chapter 1, I gave him equal melee and magic attack stats. More specifically, he has a higher magic attack stat if only using raw stat numbers. The extra melee stat is gained from Raijin, which has a higher melee stat than magic, and his armor enchantments plus passive job buffs._

 _Note #4. You guys read really fast, especially the first reviewer (or maybe you skimmed, I dunno). I had just posted the first chapter and was editing my second chapter when, a mere few minutes later, I get a review. I was thinking "... da fek?" Meh, whatever. Maybe I'm just a slow reader, which is entirely possible._


	3. Chapter 3

**NOTE:** _I apologize for the long chapters. I tend to write a lot and get carried away. When I reach a point that I think is a good place to stop, I post it on the website and look at the word count. Normally, and very usually, my word count is over 14k words (excluding these opening statements, the disclaimer, the chapter number below it, and the ending statements after the end of the chapter). That being said, I spend a lot of time removing junk words or paragraphs, or include them in a "part 2" or the same chapter._

 _I've looked at the number of chapters I've written so far, for this story, and I have about 18 documents. That doesn't necessarily mean 18 chapters, though. Some were too long, so I split them in segments of two or three. Three segments is the highest I've had to do so far, for chapter 12, which I ended with about 25k words. This is mainly because chapter 1-7, I believe, is how far the anime goes. With the anime episodes available, I have a very clear idea of what to write without going overboard. Chapter 8 and on, is still based on the Overlord arcs, such as Men in the Kingdom._

 _But since I don't have the anime's continuation after the Bloody Valkyrie arc, and I do not read the manga or light novels (attention span issues and one that I will say right now), I'm reading the synopsis of each arc on the wiki. I do this so the parts not mentioned in the wiki's synopsis, I can fill with my own voice rather than just mindlessly following every little part of the arc whilst shoving my OC in there. I believe I said this in the previous chapter(s). If this is your first time reading this, then here it is._

 _Afterward, I pace around in my room, with a pizza in my mouth, thinking of how to write that arc with my OC in it while trying to stay as true to the synopsis as possible. There are some things I change, of course. Sometimes, I don't completely like what happened in an arc and change that part as well. The wiki summaries are really just a guideline for me to walk beside instead of walk behind like a brainless zombie who can't think for himself._

* * *

 **DISCLAIMER: I don't own Overlord. If I did, Narberal Gamma would smile more often.**

 **Overlord Chapter 3**

* * *

The trip to Carne Village was a lot less eventful after my duel with Nabe. I'm not sure she or Momon bought my little act about losing to her – it did look pretty lame, now that I think about it.

On the way to our destination, Lukeluther started flirting with Shizuku and Shizuko. Unlike Nabe, those two don't really hate humans – though, it's really Ainz Ooal Gown's fault that the NPCs of Nazarick detest humans. Our guild mostly comprised of people who were hunted down by human-type players for playing demi-human and heteromorphic races. My oni companions said they weren't interested in Lukeluther, which he took much differently than Nabe's crushing responses to his advances.

He looked rather bored with their casual replies to his flirtations, as if he actually enjoys the verbal abuse Nabe gives him whenever she turns him down. It's weird, for sure, but if that's his thing, it's not really my place to judge.

When we arrived at the village, it looked somewhat different than I remember, which wasn't too long ago. A long, wooden, fence was established around the village. Each log was cut sharply on the head, and was tied expertly with decent quality rope. This kind of work couldn't possibly have been done by the villagers. It must have been the work of those goblins from the summoning flute. As we approached the entrance, Lukeluther stopped us with a wave of his hand and drew his bow and arrow. A team of goblins gathered just behind the open entrance.

"I thought I smelled something foul," he said, drawing an arrow onto his bow.

"That's close enough, blondie!" said one of the goblins, mimicking Lukeluther's archer stance. Suddenly, a number of goblins appeared out of hiding, surrounding us. The four human adventurers, calling themselves the Swords of Darkness, stood on high alert, ready for combat. Momon, Nabe, my lesser oni, and I stood without much emotion. Attacks from such low level creatures won't bother us.

"Hey, I know you," said one of the goblins, looking to me. He wore a sheet of plate mail over his torso. He held a common gladius in one hand. I pointed at myself, earning a nod and a grunt from the goblin. "You came here to visit, not too long ago, with a couple of older folks, didn't you?"

"I did, yes," came my response. The goblin lowered his weapons, as did the rest.

"Well, we'd rather not fight, if it can be helped. We aren't like our lesser cousins who know nothing but bloodshed," he said. I said nothing in response as a young woman approached the green creatures.

"Mister Goblin, what's going on?" came her youthful voice.

"Boss, you made it!" said the goblin.

"Enri!" Nfirea exclaimed.

The female blond looked to the boy in wonder, then smiled at her friend, greeting him as well. The Swords of Darkness lowered their weapons and relaxed a bit, realizing that they wouldn't have to enter combat. We were welcomed into the village as guests. Our horses were taken by the goblins and given food. Nfirea and Enri retreated into a cottage to talk, while the human adventurers waited for them under the shade of a tree, near the wooden cart. Nabe and Momon situated themselves atop a hill that overlooked the village. I asked my companions to stay with the villagers, even after we've finished our mission.

I'm willing to bet Momon was the one who gave the Goblin Summoning Flute to Enri, so they'd have something to help protect them from danger. However, the goblins are all under level 13 each, so that might not be enough to protect against more powerful adversaries. Then again, this could be me giving the threats of this New World more credit than they deserve. But I refuse to believe I've been thrust into a world where I'm one of the most powerful beings in existence. That would be dreadfully boring.

My companions, knowing I could just summon them again if I needed to, aren't very afraid of taking on powerful enemies with the possibility of death. Oni players can have their minions hold a location, and call for them again, using a recall skill, whenever the need arises. While they're alive, I can't summon more lesser oni, but I doubt I'll be needing to. This village could use a few strong warriors for protection, and my minions are much more capable than a pack of goblins.

Although they agreed, they only did so under the condition that one of them stays with me. I told them it wasn't necessary, but their devotion to me is too strong for me to control. I ended up submitting to their demands. They chose Shizuku to stay with me. They know I'll be tagging along with Momon and Nabe, and none of us have any ranger-like jobs in our arsenal. Her tracking skills will be useful in that regard. I told the village chief that I'd be leaving two of my companions with them, as extra protection, and that no payment or other considerations were required. Suffice to say that the chief didn't refuse my offer of handing over free bodyguards.

Shizuku and I joined Momon and Nabe at their hill.

"Are you two not interested in commiserating with the villagers?" I asked, approaching them. Nabe turned to me for a second, then looked away. Harsh much?

"That is not where our talents lie. We were hired to protect Nfirea, and we can do that well enough from up here," said Momon. "I notice you're missing two of your companions. Were they not with us when we entered the village?"

"You mean Shizuki and Shizuko? Yeah, they were with us," I said. "I told them to stay in this village and protect its denizens, even after we've left to finish our mission."

"That's generous of you, and them for agreeing," he said to me, looking over the citizens once more. "These people will need as much protection as possible, since there aren't any warriors in this village. Also, they are situated in the open fields. With no natural defenses or hired hands, this is a perfect place for monsters to attack in the dead of night. I appreciate you contributing some defenses to this place."

"Is that so? Do you care for these people?"

"Not particularly, at least not in the way you may be thinking," he replied. "By the way, I've been meaning to ask. Since your duel with Nabe, you lost on purpose, didn't you?"

I was taken slightly aback by that. Then again, this is the ever-watching Momon, after all. It only makes sense for him to have caught on.

"You expertly dodged Nabe's attacks with ease, you weren't even trying, and then she suddenly lands a clean hit on you? It looked very fishy to me," he said. Nabe nodded wordlessly. "Were you going easy on her so we wouldn't suspect your true strength?"

Right on the money.

"It was just a sparring match," I shrugged my shoulders. "I saw no reason to fight with everything I had. Besides, I heard you telling your partner to take it easy with me, didn't you?"

"I did, but only because I wasn't sure of your combat capabilities. I trust Nabe's strength and believe her to be more than a match for just about any fighter I've met so far," he said. "I don't suppose you'd indulge us with another sparring match? Nabe seems quite interested in you… well, your potential abilities, anyway. She feels you have more power than you've demonstrated so far, and I'm inclined to agree."

"That so? Well, perhaps you should fight me instead, Momon," I said to him. Nabe narrowed her eyes and placed a hand on the hilt of her sword. Momon waved a hand against her. She nodded and retracted her hand.

"That's a fair request. All right, then. I've been meaning to see the extent of your power, anyway," he said as he drew his swords. I did the same for my claymore and ordered Shizuku to stand with Nabe.

I blurred to Momon and swung my claymore at him. He crossed his blades to parry my attack, but was sent hurling back anyway. As he was pushed back, I swung my sword at his direction, creating a crescent-shaped lightning spell. Momon sliced the spell in half, dissipating it as he charged forward. The armored giant swung one sword at me, which I evaded with ease. He continued his assault with another slash, using his other blade. I parried that one and launched a palm at his chest plate, muttering a second-tier lightning spell that exploded on impact with his armor.

Momon was flung back once more. He looked to his smoking chest plate, which remained intact. That's odd. I expected that weak lightning spell to not have any effect on him due to his high-tier damage nullification skill. But now that I think about it, he's not a magic caster at the moment. In YGGDRASIL, that passive ability is bound to the player, active on whatever combat job they switched to. I guess some of YGGDRASIL's game rules don't apply in this world. That or Momon's current outfit prohibits him from using magic. The damage nullification isn't considered magic, but it does consume mp unless it's the passive version.

What a strange conundrum...

"Not bad. You are strong indeed, more so than most fighters I've met so far," he said. "And that sword of yours, it's enchanted isn't it?"

"Beat me and I might tell you, Mister Momon," I said, rushing to him as we engaged in a flurry of sword play. Sparks escaped our blades with every clash. He's definitely improved since last we fought, some time ago, in game. Momonga isn't the type to deal with melee, but he does it on occasion. He swung at me with both swords. I raised my blade to block it, but the sheer force of the blow sent me skidding a few feet back.

"You are much stronger than you appear. Definitely worthy of a battle mage," he said, pointing his blade at me. "I'd like to see you use more magic, though. Your expertise in melee combat is top-notch, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't interested in seeing how potent your magic arts is."

"Sorry, but I won't do that. I might blow this place up if I went all out with you in magic," I said. Nabe narrowed her eyes.

"Are you admitting you have a high mastery of magic?"

"Just about average, really," I lied. "But I don't think it'd be fair if I was the only one who showed you my magic arts."

"How do you figure?"

"Oh, come on, I can tell you're holding back a lot of power. How about you showed me some? And I mean some real power, not this childish swordplay you've been going on about," I said, taunting him.

"Do you mean to say I wield a power greater than what I've showed so far?"

"You sure do, that much is obvious. Come on, I can take whatever you throw at me. I can heal through it, remember?" I asked, reminding him of that fact. He was about to continue his assault when Shizuku turned her head towards the slope that led down to the village. "Looks like we have company. Rain check, Mister Momon?"

"I'll hold you to it, Kai," he said as we sheathed our blades. Nfirea came sprinting to us, moments later.

He stopped when he reached a few feet away from Momonga. Shizuku rejoined my side as we gave the two some breathing room. Momonga sent Nabe away so he could talk with Nfirea in private. She made her way to us quietly. I leaned against the trunk of a tree, crossed my arms against my chest, and glanced to Shizuku who looked as if she wanted to speak to Nabe. The lesser oni received her opportunity a moment later.

"Miss Nabe," Shizuku called. The Pleiades member turned to her. "As you left Mister Momon's side, you referred to him as lord. Does that entail a master-servant relationship between you two?"

"I have no desire to answer your question," she replied coldly.

"Don't be like that," said the archer. "Just between us girls, what do you really think of Mister Momon? For him to be able to stand against Kai, he must be very strong. Kai was definitely holding back, of course."

"As was lo- Momon," she replied. "And why are you even asking?"

"Curiosity."

"I see. Well cease your banter, right now."

"Cruel and cold. What does Luke see in you?"

"I have no idea, nor will I entertain such a lesser creature. That maggot can crawl in the deepest dirt for all I care," she said.

"Is that a superiority complex I hear?" asked Shizuku. "You speak like he's some kind of inferior species to you. But we're all humans here, right?"

"This conversation is over," she said, walking away.

"Real piece of work, isn't she?" I asked my companion.

"Indeed. Did you really take part in the creation of such a vile creature?" she asked. "The disdain she has for humans is truly astounding."

"Don't judge me, I wasn't responsible for creating that part of her," I answered her.

"I meant no disrespect, sire. I only wonder why you didn't make her a little nicer."

"Although I made her body and appearance, her personality was made by someone else in the guild. The ones creating the Pleiades members didn't have too much artistic talent, so they asked me to design bodies for their creations," I said. "Most of the members of Nazarick didn't tolerate humans. It's only natural that their creations bore the same animosity. Some of us didn't hate human-type players quite as much – they were only playing the game; it wasn't their fault."

"Actually, I'm still finding it difficult to believe that I'm talking to someone who was once a set of data and polygons," I said.

"Do you mean the human-hating wretch?"

"No, and don't call her that. She was programmed to hate them. I'm talking about you, Shizuku," I said. "In YGGDRASIL, I wasn't able to talk to any of you – you were just data, nothing more."

"The three of us felt the same way, sire," she replied. I blinked twice. What? "You say we were just data, and you're half right. However, we had our own thoughts and feelings as well. It was a strange, really, as if having my own mind but my body wasn't mine to control. We couldn't speak to you either; we physically couldn't form the words. We did only as you commanded, nothing more."

Shizuku approached me and knelt on both shins, to my left. She placed her hands to her thighs.

"I'm glad you were transported to this strange world, my lord. Now I may divulge to you all of my thoughts. I've waited so long to be able to speak with you, like this," she said. I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around this. My minions were sentient the whole time? How is this possible? "We've been with you through your entire time in YGGDRASIL, from the moment your character was created."

I turned to her.

"Hold on, you know my character was created and not born through natural means. Does that mean you know I'm-"

"Yes," she nodded. "We know that while you operate in the body in front of me, your mind and soul are from another world, one I know not of. Every minion-type creature, the ones you adventurers classify as NPCs, know that our masters inhabit the bodies of the adventurers in YGGDRASIL, that your true bodies hail from another world. Many of us talk about you, our masters, whenever you suddenly blimp out of existence."

"You mean logging out?" I asked, perplexed at this newfound insight. Shizuku nodded.

"Yes, logging out. It took some time for Shizuki, Shizuko, and I to learn that you had not left us for good, that you were coming back after an allotted period of time," she said. This is intense! The things they know about me would be nearly endless. Did the YGGDRASIL development team know about this?

"Hold on, what about the NPCs of Nazarick? Do they know about the true identities of the adventurers who created them?" I asked. The archer shook her head.

"I would assume so, though I have never interacted with them past basic conversations. During the times you were logged out, I talked to them, but their answers were very brief and didn't explain very much," she answered. "The floor guardians, especially Demiurge, Shalltear, and the one known as Albedo, always seemed to have a stick up their butt when I tried to speak with them. Perhaps they didn't see me as a true member of Nazarick, at least one who was created with the data crystals provided to members of Ainz Ooal Gown when you were creating the NPCs in the Great Tomb of Nazarick."

Huh… how about that…

"Whoa. This is a lot to take in, but I'm glad you told me, Shizuku," I said.

"I'm only too pleased to be of service to you, my lord," she said. "Should you require someone to talk to, in your adventures, make no hesitation to ask. I will guard you with my life, I swear it. And should I fall in combat, you can simply summon me again."

The girl stood slowly and patted off the dirt on her shin guards. This sudden revelation suddenly got me thinking of all the things I did in YGGDRASIL, with my minions summoned.

I stopped using them for dungeons and raids after I reached a total level of 70, or so. They cap at level 65, so their combat abilities were somewhat useless in level 70+ content, where even non-elite monsters would give them a hard time. Their attack power scales with mine, but that's it. Their hp, mp, defensive stats, none of it rises in accordance to my non-attack stats. In high level content, although they would put out decent DPS, for pets, they would go down too quickly against higher-tier spells, such as eighth or above. And summoning them again takes way too long.

Also, minions have a pre-chosen job set, based on the main job of their owner.

As I recall, a minion's pre-chosen jobs can reach a level cap of 15; but, they can only have two combat jobs, and two non-combat jobs unlike adventurers who can have as many as their total levels will allow. Another downside is that they don't earn extra ability points once they reach their level cap. This means there are 35 levels of main and secondary stats that minions don't have access to, unlike adventurers.

Even after I reached level cap with my war wizard, dark knight, and paladin, I would continue to gain stat points, per level up, which I could allocate into hp, mp, magic attack and defense, or physical attack and defense, up until a total level of 100. So, while leveling up my non-combat jobs, my level-capped combat jobs would continue to get stronger, beyond the threshold available to minions. Still, they aren't too shabby and have their uses past their peak of a total level of 65.

Shizuku has a main job of ranger, and a secondary job of ninja. With her maxed race job of oni, choosing the skills of Health Regeneration and Oni Awakening, she has a total of 45 points dedicated to combat stats, and 20 points dedicated to her non-combat jobs. Her non-combat jobs are beast tamer and shape shifting. The other two also have the non-combat job of shape shifting, but different secondary non-combat jobs for the reason of versatility.

Shizuki has the main job of a templar, and a secondary job of a sword master. His other non-combat job is a blacksmith. Shizuko's main job is sorcerer, and her secondary job is priestess. Her other non-combat job is sage.

But even with their staggering weaknesses in combat and non-combat jobs, as compared to adventurers, I would still summon them from time to time, even at level 100, when I felt like role playing.

The server I played in was a PvP one, but I enjoyed a bit of role playing every now and then. However, since Nazarick was a PvP/PK guild, there wasn't much opportunity to find someone to fulfill my specific gaming needs with. I didn't have a girlfriend to play with, and the members of Nazarick were always busy with their own gigs, killing off human players and stuff. I'd do that too, with them, and we had fun times, but I found that role playing allowed me to let off a lot of steam from real life stress.

"Kai, we're leaving now," said Momon, jerking my head back to reality. "Nfirea is gathering his containers, as well as the Swords of Darkness. We're going to meet him at the forest north-east of here."

"Right, thanks for the reminder," I said, catching up with him and Nabe. Shizuku followed closely behind me.

As we passed by the village, I decided to pick up Shizuki but left Shizuko behind. The goblins that Enri summoned are fairly versed with melee and ranged combat, but none of them are spell casters or healers – that's where Shizuko's specialty lies. I told her to teach the villagers magic arts until one of them becomes strong enough to cast at least tier-two spells. Afterward, Shizuko would use her judgment to stay and continue teaching them up to tier-three magic, or contact me to return.

We all met at the north-eastern forest and provided guard duty while Nfirea gathered the herbs he needed. He also mentioned something about the Wise King of the Forest. This is the first time I've heard of it, but it seems Momonga and Narberal were already privileged to know of its existence beforehand. They offered to scout ahead, using Narberal's talents with alarm-type magic. Shizuku can do the same, but to a much more powerful extent since it's actually part of her main job as a ranger. We didn't let that piece of information out, though.

As Momonga and Narberal ventured into the forest, with Nfirea's blessing on the condition that they don't kill the Wise King of the Forest since it supposedly protects Carne Village from monsters due to its myth, my minions and I followed after them.

"Mister Kai," the armored fellow spoke. He had my undivided attention. "I'd like to know why you decided to follow us instead of remain on guard detail with Nfirea."

"Boredom, really," I answered. "You seem strong, Mister Momon, and I've read from story books that strong villains tend to walk the same paths as strong heroes."

"I see, so you're hoping to meet a powerful opponent, then?"

"Yup. I mean, you can alleviate my boredom, right now, but you volunteered to scout ahead for this Wise King creature. I won't bother you while you're working," I said.

"That's very generous of you," he said. Shizuku tapped my shoulder with the tip of her bow, a sign that she sensed something, or someone, watching us. Momonga ceased their trekking. "This is far enough. Now, why don't we talk about how to spread my great name!"

Well, that clears up that semi-mystery. I had my suspicions, but now his intent is very clear to me. He took on the name of Ainz Ooal Gown in order to attract the attention of the former guild members, in case they were also transported into the new world like he was. Thankfully, it brought me to him, so his strategy definitely worked.

"Sounds good!" replied a moderately high-pitched voice. Reflexively, Nabe aimed her palm at the voice's owner, her hand letting off a blue glow. Even Shizuki had his hand on his sword, ready to draw it at a moment's notice. I glanced to the direction of the child-like voice and saw another familiar face waving down at us from a tree branch. "Careful, Nar- um, Nabe. Hello, Momon. Who might those three be behind you? New friends?"

"Hello, Aura. These three are co-workers… sort of," he answered as the child jumped off the tree branch it stood on, and landed in front of Momonga and Nabe.

"La- um, Aura, forgive me, I didn't sense your presence," said Nabe, lowering her hand and canceling her spell. I noticed she dropped her icy tone. It's to be expected, after all. Aura, along with her brother, Mare, are floor guardians and rank above her in Nazarick's hierarchy. "How long were you here?"

"Since you and Momon entered the forest," she replied, chipper as usual. Who was it that created her and her twin brother? I think it was Bukubukuchagama. I believe she works as a voice actress for some movies and anime, back in the real world. I hope she's doing well. I really do have to ask her, some day, why she made Aura and Mare cross dress. I don't have a problem with it, but I'm still curious. "So, let me guess, I need to find this Wise King of the Forest and send him your way? A creature like that could be of use, correct?"

They plan to use it? How? As food? As a mount? Doesn't Momonga already have mounts? Hmm, come to think of it, I'm unable to summon the mounts that I procured, back in YGGDRASIL. I tried calling out their names a few times, as I would with my spells and arts, during my cart ride to Carne Village and E-Rantel. Unfortunately, they wouldn't answer my call. Well, I have a horse now, so that counts for something. Still, it doesn't hold a candle to my other mounts, such as the sea dragon or the giant falcon.

"Yes. Are you up to it?" asked Momon.

"Consider it done. I think I might even know where it's make its nest," she said, stroking her chin once. Before she left, she eyed me and tilted her head. "You, with the cheap clothes and the big sword, have we met? You seem familiar."

"You too, Aura? I felt the same when I met him," said Nabe. Momon eyed both of his subordinates. I say that, but I bet he doesn't even have eyes since he's an elder lich. His eye sockets would either be empty or some kind of energy would be present where his eyes would have been. I shook my head at the girl's question.

"Sorry, this is the first time we've met," I said. "My name is Kai, and the ones behind me are my companions – Shizuki is the templar, and Shizuku is the ranger."

"I see, sorry for bothering you. My name is Aura, as you now know," she said, turning her back from us and leaping back to the tree branch we found her on. "I'll be going now."

With that, she jumped away like a nimble monkey. I almost wish I could do that without having to cast a spell. Shizuku's second combat job is a ninja, so she probably has spells that would allow her to jump around the way Aura does. I wonder if she'd let me ride her back, one time. Nah, perhaps I'd be too heavy. I can use fly magic to soar the skies, but it's not the same feeling as leaping around like a forest monkey or a flying squirrel.

"I don't suppose you're going to battle this Wise King creature?" I asked Momonga.

"You're very astute," he said. "I did fight, and defeat, those orcs in front of you all, but imagine how far my name would spread if I managed to subdue a legendary creature? Who knows? It might even bump me up past copper plate."

With not much else to 'scout' for, we made our way back to the others.

"Tell me, Mister Momon, just why do you want to spread your name?" I asked him. "If it's for fame and fortune, I can't imagine you'd need a whole lot of money if you can afford to buy the equipment that you have."

"That a… a personal reason, Mister Kai," he answered. Fair enough. "However, one can't have enough money, these days."

"With all the wars going on between the Baharuth Empire and Re-Estize, I don't blame you for wanting to build a fortune for yourself. Who knows when you'll need an emergency stash of quarl?" I replied.

"You know of the war between those two provinces?" he asked. I nodded once, with a grunt. "Intriguing, you're quite strong and well informed."

"Information is power. An old friend taught me that," I said.

Momonga continued to glance my way for a few seconds before facing forward. I wonder if he caught on that he's the one who taught me that? As soon as we reached Nfirea and the Swords of Darkness party, Shizuku dropped to one knee and placed her fingers on the ground. She stood, afterward, placed a hand on my shoulder to gain my attention, and gently tilted her head behind us for a second. Lukeluther raised a brow, probably wondering what was going on between us.

Suddenly, when some birds took to the skies in a panic, he dropped down, on all fours, and placed an ear against the ground. He stood and drew his bow.

"Heads up, everyone. Something's coming our way; it's big, and it's fast," he said, turning to Shizuku. "Hey, you heard what I just did, didn't you? How did you notice so quickly?"

"I've been a ranger for much longer than you have," she said.

"Really?" asked Dyne. "By your appearance, you can't be much older than Peter, or Luke."

"Appearances can be deceiving," said Shizuki, drawing his sword and shield. "For now, we best prepare ourselves."

"No," said Momonga. "Take Nfirea and the others and get to safety. Narberal and I will handle this danger. It's what we were hired to do."

"Sorry, I don't take orders from anyone but Kai. If he's staying, then so will I," said the templar. I leaned against a tree, a bit ahead of Momonga, arms crossed against my chest, and eyes closed. "Looks to me like he's staying."

"I will as well," said Shizuku. "I'd like to see what we're going up against."

"But… is it the Wise King of the Forest?" asked Nfirea.

"It's possible," said Shizuku. Lukeluther nodded.

"If that's the case, then we should all leave. If we anger it, there's no way we'll survive," he said, gathering his belongings in a hurry.

"Shizuki, Shizuku, watch over Nfirea and the Swords of Darkness," I said. "Let nothing happen to them."

"Understood!" they both said as they situated themselves in front of the five humans, who drew their weapons.

Nfirea hid behind Dyne and Ninya. Peter and Lukeluther stood in front of them, ready for a battle. Narberal and Momonga drew their weapons as the thundering foot stomps grew louder. Suddenly, I sensed something coming at me. I tilted my head to the side, avoiding an attack that ripped off the part of the tree behind my head. I opened one eye and saw as the object, a green, scaly, tail, swerved from behind me and struck Momonga. The armored warrior crossed his swords to block the attack. Sparks flew from the green tail, and the two blades, indicating that it must be made of some type of metal.

What interested me was the fact that he was pushed back by the strike. Whoever this Wise King is must definitely be strong. The tail retracted by reversing down the path it came. It swerved past me and back towards the direction it came from.

"Whoa, that was crazy!" said Peter. "Are you both all right?"

"Never better," I said nonchalantly.

"Don't worry about me," Momonga said reassuringly.

"How… how are they so relaxed?" asked Ninya. "I'm shaking in my shoes, and yet Mister Kai and Mister Momon don't look the least bit disturbed. Even Miss Nabe, Miss Shizuku, and Mister Shizuki look completely calm."

"I can understand Mister Momon's fearless temperament," said Dyne. These people look a little too impressed. "He's a much older and experienced warrior than the rest of us, so he's probably been exposed to many great perils that would make lesser men run in fear. But the others don't look much older than Peter or Luke, and yet they share the same iron-clad stance against this level of danger."

"No kidding. Did you see how Kai dodged the attack without even looking?" asked Lukeluther. "The senses he must have honed, at his age, must be extraordinary. He doesn't look scared at all."

"Guys, I think we just partied with some super strong adventurers who shouldn't be wearing copper plates," said Peter, sweat dropping down his face. Yuck, I can even smell the perspiration.

"Few can survive my first attack! Admirable, it is," said an odd voice that seemed to echo around the forest. It also, strangely, sounds auto-tuned. Did he just switch around the order of his sentence? There are only a few fictional characters I know of who did that. One was definitely Kenshin Himura from… what was that anime called? Bah, I forget. Another was from an old American movie, Star Wars… Yoda, was his name. Momon looked around him, trying to determine the exact location of the voice's origination. "Abide by interlopers, I do not. Many are the fools who have perished by my claws. If you wish not to join them, leave this place and respectfully withdraw I shall. What say you?"

"In your dreams," I mumbled, but loud enough for them all to hear.

"Well said," Momonga commented, looking to the sky. "Why don't you stop hiding and face me? Are you shy? Or are you afraid that you won't survive?"

"Insolent whelp! Very well. Feast your eyes upon my form and tremble in awe!" said the creature. Narberal and Momonga looked to each other. The former shrugged her shoulders.

A pair of slanted, oval-shaped, eyes emerged from behind some trees ahead of us. By the distance of its eyes, not to mention the size, it must be a large creature. I saw its round form slowly creep from the shadows of the forest, along with razor-sharp talons that pressed against a tree as it pulled itself out. As the creature revealed more of itself, runes of an unknown language was etched on its torso, glowing an aquatic color. A pair of buck teeth shone under the light, along with four sets of whiskers. By now, enough of its appearance was displayed under the light of the sun.

My hands slowly inched to the hilt of my sword. At last, I get to fight something genuinely strong in this world! I don't count Momonga or Narberal; they better be strong since they're former denizens of YGGDRASIL. I wonder if Momonga will let me fight this beast after he gets his ass kicked by its clear awesomeness? No, maybe not. But seeing it in action may reignite any hope I once lost about this world having purely weak enemies. If I'm going to be stuck here for the foreseeable future, I'd like to know that there will be many strong enemies to fight.

I could feel my fingers lightly grazing the leather-bound hilt of my blade, but it didn't completely reach as the creature fully exposed itself as…

An overgrown rodent.

My eyelids closed slightly as my hand fell, lifelessly, down to my side. I pushed myself off the tree I leaned on and approached Narberal's side. The girl didn't seem to mind my presence, or notice, or care. Her attention was on the giant hamster creature. I turned to the rest of its audience, particularly at Nfirea and the Swords of Darkness party. They were quivering in their shoes, much like Ninya was. I glanced to Momonga, whose shoulders slumped in disappointment. He probably thought we were up against a very powerful opponent.

Don't worry, buddy, I share your pain.

"Your fear is understandable, tis only natural. Any last words, interlopers?" it asked.

"A question, actually – I believe I've met your kind before, are you a-"

"Djungarian hamster?" I asked, accidentally cutting off Momonga. He turned to me as those words left my mouth. "Yeah, yeah, the resemblance is uncanny. You're enormous, but the fur color, pattern, the steel-like serpent tail, it all fits."

"How did you know that?" asked Momonga.

"A friend of mine used to own one, a lot smaller, though," came my response as I stroked my chin. Who was it that kept one as a pet? Was it Tabula? Touch Me? Hold on, it was definitely Herroherro… wait, no, that doesn't seem right. Was it me? It's possible. I collected tons of pets in YGGDRASIL, as a hobby. Never did collect them all, though. I might need to revisit this. Momonga turned away slowly, towards the giant hamster.

"A djungarian hamster, that I am, stranger. Tell me, where might I find this person, and my people?" it asked me. "As a living creature, it is my purpose to make offspring and continue my species, that it is."

"I'm afraid your size might hinder that," said Momonga. The creature sighed, I almost feel sad for it. It will never be able to fulfill its purpose to have babies. And it's not so much because of the lack of djungarian hamsters in the world – there might even be a herd somewhere. It really comes down to its massive size. Djungarian hamsters are a fraction of this creature's height and weight.

"Truly unfortunate, it is. Understand, I do," it said. I hope I don't start crying soon. The beast recomposed itself and attempted to look as intimidating as it did earlier… but I just can't take it seriously in that regard, anymore. "As for you two, cease your banter and come at me now. Fight for our lives as warriors, we shall!"

I rolled my eyes, shook my head, turned around, and placed a hand on Momonga's shoulder plate.

"All yours, buddy," I said, making my way to Nfirea as I helped carry his sack of herbs. I ushered for my minions to come and help as well.

"Running away, are you? Wise, it is, fool. Save yourself and return to me when you are stronger," it let out a laugh. I sighed, picked up a bag, and handed it to Shizuki.

"Believe me, that's not it. I was hoping you'd be some dangerous legend-beast, but I got my hopes up. If I start to fight you, I might actually kill you just to appease my frustration. That outcome would be a problem for Carne Village," I replied, glancing to Momonga. "Just immobilize it, or something. I think a basic-tier spell should do the trick."

"Are you sure? A basic-tier immobilization spell may actually kill it," said Shizuki, obviously trying to lighten my mood. He knows full well that an immobilization skill of such a low rank doesn't cause damage. I appreciate the sentiment, though. Narberal drew her sword at me.

"Such insolence! You dare issue a command to-" she stopped as Momonga nudged her at the back of the neck.

"That's enough, Nabe," he said as he aimed the tip of his sword at the hamster. Ninya rushed to him and pulled against his arm, preventing him. Narberal raised her sword and swung at the spell caster, trying to get her off of him. Before the steel could hit, it was knocked off by a pebble that sent it flying across the cheek of the hamster, embedding into a boulder. Narberal turned to the one who threw the rock, Shizuki.

"Sorry, but I was ordered to keep the members of Swords of Darkness safe. I can't let you harm that magic caster," he said, sternly. Narberal gritted her teeth, but was calmed down when Momonga placed a hand on her shoulder once more. She nodded silently and retrieved her sword from the stone.

As for the hamster, the sudden flight of the sword, across its fur, sent shivers up and down its fluffy body. It shook hard, almost painfully so, as it collapsed on its back. My palm met my face for a moment. Maybe Shizuki might be on to something, after all. Maybe a tier-one immobilization spell might have actually ended its life if the brushing of a sword, against its fur, can make it fall over like that.

"Defeated, I am. Surrender, I do," it whimpered fearfully. Momonga sheathed his blades, as Narberal did. I picked up another basket of herbs, making sure my minions had at least one to carry as well. Shizuki offered to take a load off of Shizuku, who agreed to his proposition. Nfirea and the others seemed to have a difficult time raising their jaws back to normal level. Lukeluther was the first to recover.

"Who in the world are you people?" he managed to let out. I massaged the pack of my neck as I made my way out of the forest. Shizuki remained with Peter and his team, as I ordered, making sure Narberal didn't try anything on them. Shizuku followed suit. "You guys defeated the Wise King of the Forest, and you're disappointed?!"

"You have no idea. I need break from all this nonsense," I said. "Shizuku, we're going. Shizuki, stay here and accompany the Swords of Darkness. Continue to ensure their protection in case Nabe, or whoever, loses their temper."

The templar bowed his head in silence as Shizuku and I left the group, making our way back to Carne Village.

"What an unbelievable waste of time this was. I should have just returned to E-Rantel right away," I complained. Shizuku only smiled, stowed her bow, and folded her hands in front of her.

"Do not despair, lord. You were able to gather more information on Nabe and Momon. Does that not make this trip worthwhile?" she asked. Well, that's one positive end to all this. With all the weaklings I've seen so far, those two stick out like sore thumbs. Their strength, alone, would have roused suspicion. But Nabe's accidental outburst, earlier, about Albedo, only an idiot wouldn't at least question it.

"You're right, this wasn't all for naught," I said as I fondled the bag of tusks I got from my most recent quest. "There's still these remains of those boar-men that needs to return to E-Rantel for some money."

"What are your orders afterward?"

"I'm not sure yet. I could continue to follow Momonga and Narberal, and maybe make a dramatic entrance as I reveal my true identity to them. What do you think? Or should I quit beating around the bush and just tell them?"

Shizuku closed her eyes and lowered her head slightly.

"I truly do not know, master," she said. "But, perhaps it would be nice if two Supreme Beings walked this land together, like gods among men, instead of apart. The wonders you and Momonga could achieve... the sky is the limit."

I thought on that as we maintained our pace to the village. I wonder if she meant world conquest. If it's that, unless there are more powerful opponents in this world that might give us a hard time, it's entirely possible for us to conquer this world. There are still some holes left to consider, though, such as the full extent of the adventurers who hold the rank of adamantite. I haven't met one yet, so it's difficult to judge the average combat power of the people of this world. There's also the Slane Theocracy, which I don't know much about yet, and the two warring kingdoms to think of.

I could visit them to see the progress of their war, for myself. Or, if they're weak and easily subdued, Momonga and I could just go in there, swords-a-blazing, and force them to submission. Hmph, nah. I doubt he'd go for that. We don't know much about this world, so each step has to be taken with copious amounts of preparation. I have to assume that the enemy is powerful enough to crush me, even though I've been disappointed in that regard, so far. Still, this is only one tiny part of the world that I've seen.

More is yet to be seen. Such is the life of an adventurer.

* * *

 _There you go, chapter 3. I daresay it's a little shorter than the first two, by a couple hundred words or so. I didn't plan on posting this chapter until maybe Christmas, or some other date later in the month. But my Christmas shopping went by faster than I thought, so I managed to sneak in some editing time for this chapter. I think it went well... that is the hope, anyway._

 _I was thinking of lessening the amount of followers OC has, from 3 to maybe 1. This way, it's the same as Ainz, who only usually has Narberal following him around._

 _Let's see, what else... uh... oh! I updated OC's combat stats at chapter 1, for those who didn't notice the chapter replace I did yesterday. I based it on the idea that a war wizard is supposed to have high attack stats and agility (which I will pile in with stamina), but low defense. I was looking at Ainz's stats from the wiki, and used that as a skeleton (all puns intended) to determine OC's war wizard stats._

 _For example, Ainz is a magic caster and doesn't really do the whole melee thing._

 _Because of this, OC has higher hp, higher physical attack, and higher agility. But true to the job identity of a war wizard (my version, anyway), I lowered both of his defenses, so that they're similar to Ainz's physical attack stat, which is his lowest, and agility at second place._

 _Staying true to my word, Ainz would beat OC in a straight-up magic brawl. Ainz would obliterate OC, due to the latter's much lower magic defense. That is, however, not considering OC's higher agility and strong self-healing. If they stood still and turret at each other without allowing the activation of any other skills, including OC's death-cheating automatic activation of Oni Awakening upon taking fatal damage and self-healing, then Ainz would win._

 _That's what I was going for._

 _I'm also aware that Ainz sometimes uses the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown. Though, according to the wiki, he created an imperfect copy and hid the real one in Nazarick. I didn't want him to appear more powerful than OC, since they're supposed to be of similar stature (both as Supreme Beings), though one is the Guild Master but only because he was chosen to hold that figure. Ainz isn't necessarily more powerful than any of the other mentioned guild members (though it's mentioned he's one of the best ability users in the server. I don't really know what that means, and will check on it another time)._

 _Because of this, I chose to give OC a super powerful item that he will not use very often - Bishamon._

 _I haven't completely fleshed out Bishamon's complete powers, so whatever you've read on chapter 1 isn't the finished version. It's whatever I thought was appropriate to be known of at the time. In truth, I don't feel it's powerful enough to compare to Ainz's staff, or even any world item I've seen so far. I'm going to upgrade it, in later chapters. When I first wrote chapter 1 and introduced Bishamon, I made it overpowered based on the many games I've played in the past, including online ones. What I forgot was that this is an Overlord story, where world items can literally break the balance of the world._

 _(Huh... a balance breaker... so not an intentional reference from High School DxD)_

 _But because of its very high power (the wiki says the guild staff is comparable to a world item), Bishamon will not be used often. In fact, Oni Ascension will not be used often either. Well, again, these are just my notes. They're susceptible to change in the future._


	4. Chapter 4

**NOTE #1:** _The combat stats of OC, on chapter 1's opening statements has been updated. I hope they're accurate. There are some things I still don't understand, which are the RESIST and SPECIAL ABILITY stats that Ainz has on the Overlord wiki site. Once I get around to finding out what those stats mean, the numbers on chapter 1 may change._

 _ **NOTE #2 to Guest Reviewer:**_ _I doubt you'll be reading this since you've dropped the story, but I'll put it in case you come along for whatever the reason._

 _You mentioned that my being unfaithful to the source material is your reason for dropping the story. While that's unfortunate, I did take the liberty of looking into it as I edited chapter 2, with you in mind. Without more information on my unfaithfulness, I had to assume the problem was from a previous complaint: the lack of a high-tier damage nullification skill… which, in my opinion, is a lame reason to drop an entire story, but I won't argue._

 _After I replied to your first review, I did sleep on the idea of it and concluded that since it's part of the original material, I should include it in my story. I will stand by my opinion that I don't like this skill, but would include it anyway. I talked to someone who has more knowledge on this anime than a simple wiki. According to him, all high level players have this skill. While I was saddened to gain this confirmation, and included it in my story, it still won't work the way it does for Ainz simply because it will mess with the original idea I had for this story. That being said, OC now has this skill, but it's more akin to a defensive cooldown with a set duration than Ainz's passive version._

 _All it means is sixth-tier, and under, physical and magical attacks won't just pass through him as if he were a ghost, like those Archangel attacks did against Ainz. It won't really hurt him much either, but it won't do 'nothing.'_

 _For people still reading who wish to see the edit I made, see Narberal's duel with OC at chapter 2. If you never saw how it was prior to the edit, basically, OC didn't have the high-tier damage nullification. There was also the tidbit with the random bandit at chapter 1, I'm still wondering if I should explain it there, since it's already on chapter 2. Maybe I should, just to get it out of the way early._

 _Anyway, that's what I went with if you read it towards the end of chapter 2. The edit was done before you mentioned dropping this story (no, I'm not lying to you just to save face... I almost wish I was). I'm assuming either you didn't read it, or you still didn't like my changes. If the latter is the case, then good bye and take care. Do take note, however, that your contribution was duly noted._

 **NOTE #3:** _This is an emergency update. While rewatching the episodes of Overlord, and skimming through wiki, I caught wind that Amaterasu (and Tsukuyomi) was a blade already used by Nishikienrai. This is an embarrassing oversight, so I'm going to change the name of OC's sword from Amaterasu to Raijin. You may be wondering, why the name of a deity? I'm actually still wondering that myself, but I'll leave it to the me of the future to decide. As of the posting of this chapter, the name of OC's sword, along with each previous chapter that mentioned it, has been renamed to Raijin._

 _(I hope I patched through those three chapters properly)_

 _As of the official Wikipedia website, and a separate Japanese folklore website, Raijin is depicted as an oni, which ties in to the protagonist's race. I'm going to change the element affected by the sword, from fire to thunder (and lightning). Amaterasu is the sun goddess, so I thought fire would be appropriate. But since Raijin is the thunder god, thunder magic sounds more fitting._

 _I'm really sorry if people prefer the name 'Amaterasu,' but I just can't use it now that I know it's already in the series and was wielded by someone else. This time, I made sure the name Raijin holds no presence in the Overlord anime. I even looked through some of the earlier volumes of the light novel… though I won't be surprised if I overlooked something else._

 **NOTE #4:** _It's been brought to my attention that my action scenes are pretty crappy and boring. You know who you are, and I already replied to you via personal message on this website, but I'll say it here for everyone else. I would apologize for this type of writing, but the purpose of an apology is to tell someone that I **DIDN'T** mean what I just did. In this case, I **DID** mean what I just did. Sorry, but it is what it is. I'm not Hemingway, Poe, or even Voltaire (not to say that they're known for action writing, or maybe they are, I dunno, or have forgotten). Action scenes are tricky for some writers. I do my best with them, using my limited knowledge in the field of English writing. But if they're not good enough, then I don't know what to say other than 'oops.'_

 _I took the bare minimum of English classes in college, just enough to get it out of the way and graduate with some handle on how to write, but not enough to win me a Pulitzer Prize. I did pass them, of course, but not with flying colors._

* * *

 **DISCLAIMER: I don't own Overlord. If I did, Albedo would question how Ainz would impregnate her if he's a skeleton who probably doesn't have genitals.**

 **Overlord Chapter 4**

* * *

"All right, this looks like a good spot to stop for the night," said Luke, scanning the surrounding area. I turned to Shizuku, who gave a nod of approval. We placed our stuff on the ground as Nfirea stopped his horse. It was nearly the same area that we stopped at, after fighting off that first bout of goblins and orcs yesterday.

After defeating the Wise King of the Forest, not to mention domesticating it, Momon mounted it on our way back to the city. The others wouldn't stop asking about it, including those in the village. I looked at the creature, examining its level. It isn't very powerful, sitting at the lower thirties in terms of combat level. The creature didn't seem to mind being mounted by a guy donning a full set of heavy plate armor and two large swords on his back. At level 30, it's stronger than any pack horse, that's for sure. I'm uncertain of how good it is in actual combat, but I wager it can hold its own against almost anything around here.

Nfirea and Enri bid their farewells. They're a sweet sight, though the alchemist kid gets all red and flustered around Enri. It's painfully obvious he has a thing for her, but I'm not sure the feeling is reciprocated – that or Enri is completely oblivious. I nudged at him to make a move, while we were still at the village. The poor guy was too scared and made the excuse of needing to move out and make as much progress back to E-Rantel as soon as possible. I sighed, but followed. A girl as pretty as her, someone else will come by and sweep her off her feet if Nfirea doesn't hurry it up and get his priorities straight.

Hmph, look at me, pushing a guy into a romantic situation when I can barely get myself to do the same. I mused about that girl at work, who I managed to finally ask out. She probably thinks I'm an asshole for standing her up, and I doubt she'll believe me when I tell her, if and when I see her again, that I was transported into different world where magic and orcs really exists. Yup, that's a one-way ticket to social destruction. They say honesty is the best policy, though I'm sure there are exceptions to the rule.

As soon as we stopped, I had Shizuku survey the area. She used her skills to scout a thirty-meter radius around us; there was nothing around, not hostile, anyway. When I heard that, I plopped myself on the grass, stretched out a bit, and closed my eyes. I heard equipment and bodies shifting around me. I figured it was my minions sitting on opposite sides to keep me protected. Well, it was that and also the rest of the group forming a circle to break some bread and get dinner going. They did the same thing, the first time, and even offered me a bowl. I felt somewhat guilty for accepting the meal since I hadn't given much as contribution.

The scenery between Carne Village and E-Rantel was more or less the same; a moderately clear and paved dirt path with two sides of short green grass and a mass load of trees at the far-end of both sides. It's amazing how healthy the environment looks, in this world. I can easily get used to living around here. Maybe I'll have a house built in this place, for myself. I think I can make a house, with my sub-job as a craftsman. I raised a hand, staring at it for a bit. That's another weird thing about this world.

I know of my skills as a war wizard, having used them for years while playing the game. What I don't understand is how I know how to use them. It was only a few days ago that I began living the life of Kaiserius Vol-Charis, as in wielding all his powers and even his mythical thunder sword. I've never been in a real fight, in Japan. I've done some karate classes, but I'm, by no means, a great fighter. But here, whether it's my character's level and job class, I'm pretty badass. It's like, ever since being taken to this world as my war wizard, I somehow already know how to use my powers like I've been using them for years.

If someone told me my soul and consciousness was slipped into Kaiserius, and that this body has experienced using its own powers since its creation, I can probably believe that. In YGGDRASIL, players gain skills as they level up. We use those skills many times before our next level up. And with each level up, the time it takes to accumulate experience to reach a new level increases. I must have used Combustion Mine hundreds of times while I was leveling up. To me, as Kai Suzuki, each cast of Combustion Mine was just the wave of my hand while saying its name.

But to Kaiserius, he must have focused hard for each time I used any spell. That's the best explanation I've got as to why I'm able to use my spells effortlessly.

The way each spells works, the fact that Kaiserius has used them hundreds of times in dungeons, raids, PvP, and other open-world PvE content, the method of how each spell is used has been physically engraved in his mind and body. That's why I, who has never been in a real fight himself, instinctively knows how to use his war wizard's powers. I even expertly wield Raijin like any warrior would. Whether that's due to Kaiserius using it as his main weapon since he got it, or the two-hand weapon specialization I transferred to my war wizard from my dark knight job, I have no clue.

I rested both hands on my head, about to knock out, when Shizuki passed me a bowl of food that came from Peter. I looked to him, who returned a smile at me. I sat up and graciously accepted the meal. I wasn't particularly hungry, since oni don't experience hunger as often as humans, but I might as well eat now. No sense sleeping with an empty stomach.

Peter took first watch as the rest of us slept. The idea was that every hour, one person is awoken and the person taking watch sleeps. Then, after another hour, a new person takes watch while the previous one sleeps. Nfirea wasn't included in this rotation, since he's the quest giver – he's paying them to protect him, and that includes keeping watch for crooks who might rob or kill us in our sleep. I wanted to simply have Shizuku and Shizuki keep watch the whole time, since they don't require sleep, but that might have appeared weird to the rest of them.

I woke a few hours later, when it was Momonga's turn to keep watch so Dyne could sleep. I'm almost sure Momonga was awake the entire time, not really needing to sleep at all if that's really him inside that armor. The guy played an undead character in YGGDRASIL, a skeleton, no less. I can't imagine a creature without blood or guts needing to sleep. I'm not even sure he experiences fatigue. I stretched, feeling quite energized. I noticed the oni race doesn't need as much sleep as humans. This works perfectly for me, so I can take more time doing things I need to do instead of wasting it on sleep.

I stood and finished stretching. The armored warrior turned to me, as did Narberal. I'm not sure she even slept either. I picked up the group's water canteens and made my way to the nearby water stream. It's running water, so there's less chance of me picking up dirt when I refill these things. It's the least I can do after accepting two free meals from these nice people.

"I'll be right back. I'm just going to fill up these canteens with water so the others can have something to drink in the morning," I told Momonga, who nodded and resumed his look forward.

Narberal maintained a longer-than-normal glance at me, though, even after Momonga tore his attention away. She looked at me with those steel-cold and calculating eyes. I paid it no heed and went about my business. She doesn't seem to like me very much, that's already apparent. I wonder if her opinion would change if she learns who I really am? The water stream was to our left, about thirty meters away, past a long line of trees, boulders, and bushes. My guardians went with me. I preferred they stayed with the rest of the group, since I didn't plan to take too long, but they insisted on coming.

My protection was simply not up for debate. I thanked their tireless conviction, nonetheless.

When we walked past the trees, and walked around some bushes, I noticed my guardians carefully surveying the area. Shizuku already scouted around, and she said she didn't note anything suspicious. They're just doing their jobs, I suppose. As soon as I heard the trickling of water hitting against stones, I knew we were close by. I uncorked Peter's canteen first, made a few more steps to the stream, and bent down to collect some water. It even smells fresh.

I took in a breath, taking in the peaceful evening scenery. There was even a cricket sitting on a pebble, across me. I was about to reach for it when I heard the SHING sound of Shizuki's sword sliding against its sheath. I looked to my protectors; Shizuku brandished her bow and loaded a mana arrow into it. I finished with Peter's canteen and went with Ninya's next.

"Uh, are you two all right?" I asked them.

"We're not alone, lord. There are two… no, three presences watching us and they're very powerful," said Shizuku.

I looked around, seeing nothing out of the ordinary until two sparks of yellow electric balls shot out of some bushes ahead. Shizuki got in front of me and raised his shield to repel the attack coming at me, but was still pushed back a great degree. Shizuku, however, was not so lucky as she was grazed on the shoulder while attempting to dodge. Her body fell limp on the floor. I put the canteens to the side as I ran to the ranger and examined her. Jolts of electricity coursed through her body, causing her to flinch every few seconds. She didn't look to be in pain, but it didn't seem like she could move either.

"My lord… please run…!" she made out with a lot of difficulty.

"Paralysis? What the-" I muttered as I heard metal clashing with metal. I turned to Shizuki, who was engaged in combat against a dark figure who was donned in armor blacker than the night. By the shape of its body, and the feminine curves of the armor, I can tell the wearer is female. "Hey, who are you?! Why are you attacking us?!"

I placed a hand on the hilt of my sword, ready to attack, when I noticed something else coming at me from my left; it was a javelin of pure light. I drew Raijin and parried the hurled weapon, but was sent back a few feet from the impact. I saw smoke hissing out of my claymore's blade. Whatever that light spear was, it was definitely enchanted. I sprinted to Shizuku, picking her up as I turned to the Templar, who let out a shout of pain.

The female warrior's black axe tore into his chest plate and drew a lot of blood from his body. While the large wound was slowly healing, not to mention the added healing-over-time spell he just cast on himself, the gashes on his body and pierced armor slices on his shoulder, thighs, and waist were taking a toll on his healing. His injuries weren't closing fast enough to sustain his bleeding.

I dashed in to help him, only to see another light spear coming my way. If I moved away, it would hit Shizuki. And, with both my hands occupied carrying a paralyzed Shizuku, I had no other choice but to raise a defensive enchantment from my paladin job, Light-Force Barrier, and kicked the attack away. Smoke hissed out of my shin as my leg wobbled somewhat. The defense buff from my paladin enhances my overall magic defense by a percentage of its total. But with war wizards and their low defenses, the buff didn't grant very much defense at all.

I grunted in pain, but felt my leg healing. Whatever that attack was, it was strong.

When Narberal and I sparred, her attacks didn't damage me too much because of several factors including our level discrepancy – 63 on her and 100 on me. But this attack felt about as powerful as any of the spells in my own arsenal, meaning it came from a level 100 caster. That and the sizzling smoke coming from the point of impact means it must be enchanted with holy properties, a deathly weakness amongst demons which include oni. Fire can cause that smoke, but oni are resistant to fire, so a lot of heat would be required to deal any real damage to me, even from a level 100 player or creature.

As I recovered from the attack, two dark-hooded people emerged from the stones and bushes. They were smaller than the warrior who was totally owning Shizuki. One was slightly smaller, in frame, than the other. I couldn't tell whether they were male or female, but that wasn't important at the moment. They were coming in fast. They stretched their legs with kicks aimed at my chest and face.

"Oni… Awakening…!" said Shizuku as she clenched her teeth and fists.

A blue aura surrounded her body. Her hair grew longer and wider; her skin became coated with a dark steel-like second layer; and spectral samurai armor was donned on her body. Her eyes revealed a bright gold color. The electric jolts on her body were instantly dispelled as she entered her transformed state. She shoved my arms away, spun her body in mid-air, and raised her arms over her face and chest to intercept the kicks. The oni was flung into a tree, her body breaking through the trunk.

"Shizuku!" the Templar cried, turning away for a moment.

His opponent raised her axe to deal an overhead swing at him. I tackled him with my shoulder and drew my sword at the blade of her axe, parrying the attack. Immediately, my biceps buckled at the sheer physical strength of this armored woman. Shizuki crossed his arms over his face and entered his transformed state as well, then got behind me as he blocked an attack that came from the child-like figure with long, ponytailed, white hair. Shizuku charged in, two daggers in hand, to engaged the remaining assailant.

I leaped back and shot a seventh-tier lightning bolt spell at the armored woman. She raised her axe in front of her as the lightning split in two ways as it connected with her blade, as she sprinted my way. We engaged in another bout of steel clashing until Shizuki got in front of me and stopped her attack with his shield, causing the bulwark to be cut in half, along with his arm. Blood spurted from the socket, but he ignored it as he fought the woman to the best of his ability.

"Lord, please flee! I think they're after you!" he said as his previous opponent, and his current one double-teamed against him.

Powerful as the Oni Awakening transformation was, it didn't make the user invincible. In just seconds, Shizuki was completely overwhelmed with a precise tag-team combination of attacks from both flanks. He coughed more blood from his mouth and channeled a healing spell. His casting was canceled as the shorter assailant generated a light spear in hand and shoved it through his chest. The Templar's transformation dropped as his hp reached zero. He fell to his knees, dropping his sword, as the axe-woman swung her black blade at his back, cutting him in two.

Shizuku watched her comrade fall, his body vanishing in glitters of white dust in the wind. She kicked at her opponent, who caught her roundhouse, twisted her ankle, and tossed her to the side. All three, now came after me. I wanted to fight them, but they're all so strong. I can probably take them one at a time, but not all at once. Clicking my tongue in my mouth, I turned and ran. I thought of running to Momonga; he has the strength to turn the tide, but Nfirea and the other humans were at camp too. Since some of them are asleep, there's a high chance that they'll be caught unprepared and perish. But even if they were ready, they can't fight something like this.

Not wanting to burden them with my problems, I swerved left, sprinting with all the speed my legs could push.

I turned back at the three; they were still running after me. What I don't understand is why? I'm pretty sure I haven't pissed off anyone yet in my short time on this world. There was that bandit group in the beginning, but my oni killed all of them so there shouldn't have been any witnesses. The boar-men met the same fate. I've been fairly careful not to cause trouble, and now three super strong people, two I assume are women, are coming after me. I heard one of them speak, muttering words under her breath as two other women appeared from white smoke and flew at me with razor-sharp talons.

Their torn white garbs were about the same tint as their ash-white skin. A platinum-gold necklace was worn around their necks. Long black hair draped down their back, matching the dark outer layer and iris of their eyes. The middle layer was a red hue, the same shade as blood. They came at me with swipes from sharpened and extended black finger nails. I stabbed one in the stomach, searing through its flesh, and sliced the other in half. My three pursuers ceased their chase, watching as the two buxom, white-clad women howled in pain on the ground.

Raijin's lightning enchantment roasted their bodies with a high voltage electricity. I narrowed my eyes at them.

"Vampire brides…?" I said, looking to the one with long white hair. She was taken aback. "I only know of one person who can summon them. Is that you, Shalltear?"

The three took a step back as the hooded ones revealed themselves. One was the beast tamer, Aura Bella Fiora, one of the dark elf twins who stood as the guardian of Nazarick's sixth floor. The other was the petite true vampire, Shalltear Bloodfallen, the guardian of floors one, two, and three. The armored woman removed her helmet, allowing a lush of beautiful jet-black hair to cascade down her back. Her yellow eyes pierced into mine, much as her pearl horns would if they get too close. Albedo, leader of the floor guardians, eyed me.

"Narberal was right, this one is powerful, but I never guessed he would know the identity of your pets, Shalltear, or you," said the succubus, her eyes remaining on me. Wait, Narberal contacted them? But when? How? She was within my eyesight the whole time. Could she have returned to Nazarick, while I slept, and informed Albedo? No, that would require too much effort. She could have flown, or maybe used Greater Teleportation, but that still sounds like too much of a hassle. Shalltear bit her black nail.

"Yes, but knowing our identities is beside the point. He can go head to head against any of us, and that makes him a threat to Lord Momonga's path to world conquest," she said. I gripped my hold on my sheathed sword. So it really is Momonga in that armor. He's here with me. And what's this about world conquest? Shizuku talked about it, but I took it as a joke. I certainly have the power to do it, and that means so does Momonga. What happened to him? How far did he fall? "We need to dispose of him, here and now."

"I agree," said Aura. "His friends were pretty strong too, though ultimately no match for us. But if they were able to put up that kind of fight, it's good that we got rid of them. Speaking of…"

Aura turned her head to the left as Shizuku blurred behind her with a raised dagger. The dark elf caught her by the wrist and slammed her on the ground. Aura got behind her and pressed her foot on the ranger's back, as well as pulling against her arm. The oni shouted in pain as she looked up at me.

"Lord… please go!" she said as Aura twisted her arm. All of us heard a sickening snap. Shizuku opened her mouth to scream, but was in too much pain to let her voice out. Aura let her arm ago as it limped on the ground. The floor guardian scratched the side of her head.

"That blue glow she had earlier, it's gone," she said. "It gave her a surprising burst of strength, just like that other guy. Still, she wasn't a match for me, not by a long shot."

I drew my sword against Aura, but Albedo met my sword with her axe. This time, she was the one being pushed back. Her arms quaked under the clash of weapons.

"Damn this guy, he's so strong!" she said. I smashed the pommel of my blade on her exposed neck, causing her to stumble. I grabbed the other two guardians by the collar and slammed their backs hard on the ground as I picked up Shizuku and leaped back to make a break for it. But before I could get any further, still in mid-air, a light spear punched through Shizuku's chest. Blood spat out of her mouth, to my shirt, as her body began to dissipate in glitters, the same with Shizuki when he perished.

"Don't die… Lord… Kaiserius…" she said as the rest of her body flittered away to the wind in the form of brightly-lit dust. Two of the three women cringed, hearing my name. Shalltear got up, as did Aura, and found themselves taking a knee.

"Wait… that girl, what did she call him?" asked the dark elf, her voice shaking. "Lord… Kaiserius? One of the Supreme Beings?!"

"Oh no, we've been assaulting one of the great ones this whole time?!" Shalltear shouted, her hands to her face in horror, but Albedo stood her ground. In fact, she looked a lot angrier now than before. The armored succubus righted herself and pointed her axe at me.

"You… out of all the Supreme Beings of Ainz Ooal Gown, you're the one I hate most… you're the one who left Lord Momonga's side and caused him great sadness – you traitor!" she howled, letting out a bestial scream. I winced when she said that, suddenly losing some grip on my sword. It wasn't so much her radial shout that caused my body to quake, but bringing up that horrible memory I couldn't seem to forget even if I wanted to. Just as she said, I am a traitor. I left Nazarick and didn't even say it to Momonga's face that I was going.

"The Supreme Beings eventually left us, one by one, to pursue new goals, to create new life just as any god should. They all left except Lord Momonga. But you, Lord Kaiserius… the way you turned your back on the guild and my love, even deleting him from your friends list, yours is a crime I can never forgive!" she said angrily. "How much has he done for you? For all of you Supreme Assholes?! He only wanted his friends to stay with him, and none of you could give him that. I hate every last one of you, our so-called great creators! You don't deserve to live!"

To be honest, it's hard to argue that.

"Albedo…" I said with a sigh. But would could I possibly tell her that would ease her heart? The others logged off and never came back because of real life problems that just couldn't be left to the side anymore. I left in pursuit of personal power. But it wasn't as if I didn't like Momonga, or the guild. I did send him a letter about my departure. I guess now it's safe to assume that he never got it. I'm to blame for his sadness, much more than the others. At least their reasons for leaving were just. Mine was out of greed.

I sheathed my sword… at least that was the plan. As soon as I inserted it into its sheath, I felt the enchanted steel pushing against my hand, like it was fighting, refusing to be put away. The sword I've wielded to countless battles; I guess even it knows me by now. It knows what I'm about to do, and it can't help me if it's put away. For a warrior to put his weapon away, in the face of adversity, means he's giving up. If that's the case, then Raijin is right to be afraid that I'm not going to fight this anymore. To be perfectly honest, if Albedo's anger is my punishment, then why should I run?

I'd only be perpetuating the growing guilt inside me that I've been wanting to be absolved of since I departed for my solo-quest.

"You have every right to be angry with me, if it's for this. But know that I never intended to cause Momonga any harm. He was my friend, you know, all of them," I said to her. The floor guardian leader charged at me, axe raised, and swung it clean across my chest. I struggled to remain standing, not even bothering to slow the blood gush by putting a hand on my wound. It healed completely, in mere seconds. I stood up straight, looking at her apologetically. She gritted her teeth.

"Narberal also said your healing was strong, but I didn't expect this. Still, I can overwhelm your pitiful defenses and your self-healing with strong burst damage. Lord Tabula created me for defense, but don't think for a second that I'm not strong enough to beat down anyone who makes light of my love's compassion for his friends. You don't deserve any of it!" she said, cutting into me again, with her axe. Before she could get a third swing, Aura stormed in and caught her hands to stop her raging onslaught.

"Albedo, stop this! It's not our place to question any decision made by the Supreme Beings! We were created to obey their will, that's it," she defended as my body continued to heal rapidly. "We all knew of Lord Kaiserius's departure, but everything a Supreme Being does comes with a good reason. I'm sure he was going to return eventually, and he did!"

"That may be, but I don't see him as a Supreme Being anymore. He's not even in the guild!" Albedo barked as she shoved the smaller girl away. I smiled at the dark elf, silently thanking her for her efforts.

I watched my hp quickly drop from Albedo's relentless attacks. Although my healing is strong, it just couldn't keep up with the barrage of powerful physical damage being dealt to me. Coupling that with my less-than-pitiful defenses as a war wizard, my health was dropping faster than a stone in water. I bit my lip, enduring the pain. I even took off my oni ring, and shoved it in my pouch with trembling hands. This will stop my automatic Oni Awakening transformation if Albedo ends up killing me… and that is looking very likely. I don't have the will to stop her, I just don't.

I looked to Albedo's eyes as she hacked away at me, her fury unrestrained and unshackled. I left my arms open, so she could get the best swings possible. Each cut and hacking of flesh caused me to stumble, but I wanted her to get all this out. She's angry at me, and probably the other guild members, for leaving them. What we did is akin to parents leaving their children. If Momonga left them too, they would have been without purpose or direction. I don't know why the other NPCs don't feel this way, but I would understand if they did.

"Physical Art: Laceration!" she said, her axe glowing red as she hacked across my chest. I coughed some blood out, trying to stay standing. Laceration, just as the name implies, tears into the flesh to open a wound that has no duration and cannot be dispelled by normal means. One has to be fully healed for that debuff to come off. Every second, the target takes one percent of total health in damage. And every second, the target takes increased damage over time, at a maximum of six percent per second.

I always knew karma would come for me, for what I did. I didn't know when or how, but I knew it would and had long since accepted whatever form it shaped itself in. Whether it's getting fired from work, losing my car, my apartment, ganked in a dark alley by some random assailant, or even this – being hacked to fleshy bits by a pissed off succubus. It's all the same. I abandoned my friend, therefore I'm worse than scum.

At a meager fifty percent of hp left, and a ticking six percent bleed damage-over-time effect, I knew I didn't have much time left. My self-healing couldn't keep up at all. At a rate of five percent health gained per second, but losing six percent per second, there was a net loss of one percent of health per second. I can put my ring back on, which would grant me a second life once my hp ticked to zero, but I just couldn't find it in myself to do so. I deserve this, and the universe has its way of equalizing everything. Something like this would have happened eventually.

Who knows? Maybe I'll wake up in my apartment, once I die. Though, that might be asking for too much. The whole time, when I was doing my quest for Oni Ascension, which I can use now to save my life, but won't either, and Bishamon, I was thinking of the guild and Momonga. There were only three of us left; Herroherro, Momonga, and me. I think Herroherro said he would try to log in for a little bit, just to see Nazarick one last time before getting off.

While he was talking with Momonga, I was fighting that last demon boss creature. I wanted to see them all again, especially Herroherro who still owed me ten thousand gold when he bet Nishikienrai could beat Touch Me in a duel. That ninja bastard got close, but Touch Me didn't gain the title of Perfect Warrior for nothing. I wanted to be with my friends to the end, but I was so wrapped up in my quest that I ignored my friend's silent cry for someone, any of us, to sit ouy with him the remaining few seconds there was left of the game that brought us together.

But even before that, when the others started giving their items away to Momonga, asking him to just sell them as they left the game, he chose not to. He kept them as a memento for all the great times we had together. I thought surely the guild staff was memento enough, but it wasn't good enough for the guild leader. He wanted a piece of everyone to remember by. Hmph. I wonder if he'll remember me. I don't think I ever gave him anyth- wait, I did.

There was a ring I won from a world event, about six months ago. It's a divine-tier ring with a one-time ability to change into any ring of divine-tier and under, taking up all its powers. I wonder if he still has that ring?

I felt my life slipping from me. There was a large puddle of my blood, below me. Shalltear and Aura held Albedo back, taking her axe away. I blinked slowly, hearing a familiar voice calling to me. It was my third oni, Shizuko. She was leading Momonga and the rest of the group to me. How did she find… oh, wait, that's right. My summoned oni can sense, from anywhere in the world, if I drop below 75 percent of total health and come running for me. It worked the same way in YGGDRASIL. They're programmed to come to my defense, even if I station them somewhere far away.

They're supposed to follow all of my orders, even if it's to sit still about twenty kilometers away. They'll do that until they sense my life is in danger. If that comes to pass, they'll ignore whatever order I set them to do and come for me. My safety is the one importance that overrides any other order I give to them.

When they arrived, some looked away at the horrible sight before them. Shizuko's eyes dripped with tears as she placed glowing hands on my wounds, attempting to heal me. I snapped my fingers, causing her to forcefully disappear. She shouted my name as she vanished, the words ringing through Momonga's ears… well, the spots on his head where his ears would be, if he had any – skeleton and all.

It was then that he panicked.

"Kai… Kaiserius?! It was you this whole time?!" he said frantically, taking my body as it slumped powerless in his arms. Narberal's mouth went to her hands; she had no idea of my identity, nor did I expect her to. I never maintained a human disguise in Nazarick, the one haven in all of YGGDRASIL where I could just drop into my oni form without fear of having to look over my shoulder for people wanting to kill me. "Who… who did this, Kaiserius?!"

I scoffed at his request, watching my health drip down to twenty-seven percent.

"I'd tell you but… no, I won't say. I don't want… you to be… mad at her… at them," I said, coughing some blood out. Shalltear had Albedo pinned on the ground. She and Aura were in tears, turned away. "I deserve… this. L-left you… and the guild… a month… a month ago."

"Yes, I know, I got your letter! I've been waiting patiently for your return!" he said, shaking me awake as my eyelids began to droop to a close. "Don't you die on me. You're a proud member of Ainz Ooal Gown, aren't you? Our guild does not know defeat, Kaiserius!"

"I'm not in… the guild anymore, right?" I asked, pushing some blood down my throat. It only came up a bit later anyway. "But you… you got my… letter."

"Heh… that kind of… makes me happy, if only… a little," I told him weakly. "Don't let anyone… heal me. I caused you so much pain… Albedo was right. I don't deserve… to be saved by… by you. To have been your friend… fun… we had fun times, didn't… we?"

Momonga glared at the downed Albedo. I can feel his anger about to take him over. I hope he doesn't do anything rash. I don't have the strength to stop him. But even if Albedo did this, I don't blame her. In fact, I would probably try to protect her, if I could muster the energy to do so. Momonga turned to his follower, the weeping Pleiades maid.

"Narberal! Heal him, now!" the warrior shouted. Damn it, what did I just finish telling him? Narberal quickly dropped to both knees, her hands glowing, but I clasped them together with one hand that was drenched with blood. Is it mine? Or one of my fallen oni? I can't even remember anymore. Is this what it feels like to be dying?

"I have about… fifteen seconds… left. My healing can't… it can't… keep up," I said to him, coughing out what I believe will be my last set of blood. I casted a healing spell on myself, just to give me a little more time, but not enough to fully heal me. I caused them all pain by leaving – I don't deserve to live.

I looked to him through the slit of his helmet. If he was capable of tears, would he cry for me? I wouldn't, if I was him. But maybe that's what separates us. Momonga was always that nice guy that everyone liked, well, except the ones who tried to kill him. I wasn't in the guild yet, when it was first Nine's Own Goal. I heard Touch Me stepped down and gave the position of guild master to Momonga, who recreated the guild under the name of Ainz Ooal Gown. Why am I remembering these things now? Is this what NDE is? Near death experience? If so, this must be the part where my life flashes before my eyes.

Is it happening? I'm not so sure at all. In fact, my vision is getting kind of blurry. I see two of Momonga. This is why I never did drugs; I was afraid I'd see weird things. Well, there's that and the fact that I spent a good amount of my work money on YGGDRASIL. I never did get that Shooting Star ring that Momonga and Yamaiko got, did I? The regrets are plenty, and yet I feel as though I can die in peace, knowing karma finally got to me for what I did. This is only fair, this is part of keeping the balance of the universe, and I accept it. This is my atonement for my sin, for leaving my friend behind when he needed me most.

But if I had that Shooting Star ring, what would I wish for? Three times per day, I can make something drastic happen without sacrificing my experience points. What would it be? I don't know… well, no, that's a lie. I wish Momonga would forgive me for leaving. I wish my death would be enough to sate Albedo's anger towards the others who left because of life problems.

I wish that if, on the off-chance, Momonga finds out it was Albedo who did this, that he'd show her mercy. She's only acting on her programming, though I don't remember any part of her settings saying that she hated the other guild members. Did Momonga change that too? Along with her having a great romantic interest in him? That aside, I think I just made three wishes. It's too bad I don't have that blasted ring. It would have been useful right now.

"Take over the… the world, yeah? I'll… I'll tell the others… if I see… if I see… them. Good luck… Momonga… my friend," I said as my hp ticked down to zero. I felt my body slowly vanishing in glitters, just like Shizuku and Shizuki. I was wondering why that was the case – I figured I'd just die without all these dramatic lightshow effects. That or I'd resurrect like I would in YGGDRASIL. It doesn't look or feel like I'm resurrecting, so that solves that question. I'm not in a game world anymore, after all.

Of course I won't respawn after dying.

My eyes slowly closed as the rest of my strength left. I'll see you around, Momonga. But don't follow too soon, you hear? I want you to tell me all about how you conquered this strange new world we were plunged into, about all the women you managed to make submit to you, about all the children you sired… wait. You're a skeleton, so you can't have children. Then again, I've played enough video games to know that magic can be the answer to everything. Can't have kids? Yes, you can, because magic. It's a stupid excuse, but it seems to work every time so there's no point questioning it.

I thought I'd be around longer, maybe eventually reveal myself to Momonga when the time was right. I guess I never got that dramatic entrance opportunity I was looking for. And earlier I wanted to beat Nfirea's head in for not confessing his feelings to Enri. I'm such a hypocrite. I'm just like him… sort of. I should have just told Momonga who I was, then maybe I wouldn't be in an embarrassing mess like this, in front of him. Still, I accept this fate. I only hope that the afterlife will cut me some slack, once I get there.

I paid for my mistake with my life. For whoever judges me, wherever I end up, I hope my offer is good enough for them. If I could be given one sliver of peace… I think that might be nice.

* * *

 **Third Person PoV**

* * *

Momonga watched as the last of glimmers of his comrade was swept away by the passing wind, disappearing to nothingness. Anger rose from within him. If not for the mysterious green light that showered him whenever he experienced intense emotion, he would have blown his top ten-fold by now. He looked to his black gauntlet, it was smeared with the blood of the former Ainz Ooal Gown member. He had his suspicions that Kai was an YGGDRASIL player, but he never would have guessed that it was the same guy he often hung out with in the guild, who loved making crackpot jokes.

One day, several weeks ago, he received mail from Kaiserius that he was leaving the guild in order to pursue a quest that required him to not be a part of any guild, or to have anyone in his friends list. It was a solo quest, in every sense of the word. Momonga sent a reply to him, telling him to give it his best, and to return to the guild whenever he finished so they could celebrate a job well done. The skeleton often wondered if Kaiserius ever got this mail, but it's possible that he didn't due to the bug with the mail system that plagued YGGDRASIL towards the end of its service.

But there he was, right in front of him in plain view. If there was one thing Momonga disliked about Kaiserius, it was his lack of being straightforward. Kaiserius was the sarcastic troll of the guild. There were others who shared the title, but he trolled even the trolls who played as the troll race. He could piss anyone off with his remarks, and he often got in trouble with the others because of it, but it was all in the name of good fun. They knew this, but it didn't help sometimes. Still, Momonga never wanted this for his friend.

He cursed himself for being a horrible guild master and a friend, to not have recognized Kaiserius from the start. If the similarity between the two names wasn't already an indication, then he was a monkey's uncle. He even used the same tactic, shortening his name from Momonga to Momon to create his adventurer persona. The armored warrior stood and looked to the dark sky.

The sun would be up soon, and it would be time to resume the quest, but he just couldn't find it in himself to continue. The purpose of spreading his name to the world was to attract any of his former guild mates to him, in case they were sent to this magical medieval world with him.

It was successful – it led Kaiserius to him… but his plan had flaws, he didn't see it until now. Kaiserius didn't tell him who the culprit responsible for his assault was and, eventually, his demise, but it wasn't hard to narrow it down. For some strange reason, Aura and Shalltear were present. Shalltear was supposed to have left with Sebas and Solution to the Re-Estize kingdom to gather more information about the world. If the vampire was present, then it means she just violated a direct order from him. Far as he knew it, only Aura had reason to be in the area. She was supposed to scout ahead for any threats against Nazarick.

Then, there was Albedo.

Why she was here, he hadn't the faintest idea. He never called for her, she just suddenly showed up in full battle attire. She only wears her armor when she's expecting to fight a strong opponent, or when she's told to. The latter never came to pass, so it must have been the former. And, to his knowledge, the strongest among his group, aside from himself and Narberal, was Kaiserius and his friends, whom Momonga figured were his oni summons in human disguises. The fact that his mage oni was the only one left among the three means the other two were slain.

If there are three raid bosses present, all who are likely after one man, then it makes obvious sense that that man's protectors would come to his aid. Unfortunately, those three oni are capped at level 65. They have the Oni Awakening transformation skill, which drastically boosts their combat prowess, and their attack power scales directly off of their summoner's physical or magical attack stat, but it's not enough to stand against a floor guardian.

Even if all three of them teamed up against one, using their transformation, it still wouldn't have been enough. They're a little stronger than Narberal, but they don't hold a candle to a floor guardian. Also, Albedo was pinned to the ground by Shalltear. If that gesture means she has done nothing wrong, then there's clearly something wrong with the mindset of Nazarick's NPCs.

"Narberal," Momonga called for his servant. She knelt beside him, still shaken at the death of her co-creator. "I want you to finish the quest without me. Collect the reward, then return home. Aura, do the same. Shalltear, you being here means you disobeyed the order I gave to you. Go with Aura and await my return. As for Albedo, get her out of here before I lose my temper and decide to kill her."

Albedo's body flinched, but closed her eyes to accept the words of her lord.

"And one more thing, Narberal… how did Albedo know to find us here?" he asked, trying to contain his growing rage. One of Kaiserius's last requests was to not be angry with the one responsible for the injuries that eventually killed him. But he also mentioned 'them,' meaning there was more than one person responsible. At this point, it was either Aura or Narberal. The difference is, only one of them was threatened by Kaiserius's power.

"I…" the girl stuttered. "I told her, my lord, that there was someone whose power threatened yours. But I never knew it was Lord Kais-"

Momonga turned to her, lifted her by the neck, and raised her up. His red eyes burned inside his armor, furiously glowing through the slit on his black-knight plate helmet. The crimson orbs threatened to vaporize the female doppelganger. Lukeluther tried to rush into her aid, but was blocked by an arm from Peter. The tank shook his head; this wasn't their place to interfere. Narberal's hands rose to her master's vice grip. He was choking the life out of her, so her survival instincts were kicking in as her feet flailed in mid-air. Momonga tossed her to the side, like a ragdoll, and turned away from the rest of them.

"I wish to be alone. Leave now, before I change my mind and simply kill you all," he said. Shalltear picked up Albedo and opened a dark gate, pushing her inside. Once Aura had walked in, she made her way in as well, closing the portal from the other side. Narberal stood, bowed her head to Momonga, and led the rest of the adventurers away. Ninya offered to stay, but the disguised maid ushered him along. She turned back to her master, for a moment, before facing forward.

Narberal knew this was a day she would never forget. It was the day she took part in the murder of one of the Supreme Beings. She knew that if Kaiserius fought back, he would have taken at least one of them with him. But they were all relatively unharmed. He never fought back. All the blood on the ground belonged to him, and him alone. Every NPC knew of his leaving the guild, but never questioned his decision to do so. The Supreme Beings came and went as they pleased. As gods who created them, it wasn't their place to speak above the great ones.

However, Narberal only wanted to protect her master. When she sensed the monstrous power Kai was hiding, it shook her to the core… mainly because it was a power that mirrored her master's strength. Not wanting anyone to take her master's place as supreme ruler, Narberal called in Albedo to get rid of Kai, knowing she, herself, lacked the power to do so. Narberal mentioned the enemy was strong and suggested reinforcements. When Albedo said she would be coming in with Shalltear and Aura, the Pleiades maid became at ease.

All of it went out the window, however, when she saw her co-creator in his deathbed from all the wounds Albedo inflicted on him, the wounds he thought he deserved for leaving all of them. Narberal never wanted this, not in a million years. No matter what he did, leaving the guild and Momonga, the will of a Supreme Being was to never be questioned. That was the absolute rule, and they all understood this to the letter. Narberal closed her eyes, not in fatigue but in shame. More tears went down her eyes as she clenched at her chest – the dishonor was practically suffocating.

She had taken part in patricide, a crime she would never forgive herself for. If the other maids learned of this as well, they would surely never forgive her either. If her master saw it fit that she take her own life to atone for this, she would do so gladly.

She would do so not simply because she swore fealty to him, to obey all of his orders, but because she committed the one act that all NPCs in Nazarick knew never to do. As much as it was taboo to question the will of their masters, it was even more so to hurt them. Narberal hoped her leader would give the order to end her life. She wasn't sure she could live with this disgrace. But death would be too kind; it was a gift, even in this situation. To continue living, for the heinous crime she committed, was the greatest punishment she could think of for herself.

If Momonga had any mercy at all, he would end her himself.

Momonga released a breath of air he didn't know he was holding. If the death of his comrade at the hands of his allies, was any indication at all, what was the point of spreading his name? If, by chance, another of his former allies were sent to this world with him, and they caught wind of his name, they might come to him… only to meet their end. It would be done when his back was turned and unable to control the actions his floor guardians would commit in the name of protecting their master from a power that rivaled his own. He would be, effectively, luring friends to their own demise.

Momonga sat in silence, not knowing what to do anymore.

* * *

 _This is a version of chapter 4 that I wrote only a few days ago. It's unlike the chapter 4 that what I wrote a long time ago, which means this story is taking a different path from what I originally intended. You can imagine my irritation when I tell you I've written more than a dozen chapters already. And now that a new idea has come forth, I'm writing an entirely new course of events. They are too vastly different for me to just make simple edits, here and there. I still have the previous version of chapter 4 through chapter 12 part 3, but it's unlikely that I'll be using those anymore._

 _I'll still keep them, though, maybe as a reference or a guideline of how to proceed forward._

 _Anyway, I just killed off my OC... I'm not sure how I feel about this. Maybe I should carefully plan out my chapters instead of just letting my fingers fly and reading what I wrote after I finished... but where's the fun in that? Yes, I know, not very professional. But this is a hobby, not something I make money out of. I'm actually a pretty shitty writer, as I've been told many times in the past. Believe it or not, I have an online thesaurus, dictionary, and Wikipedia website open while I'm writing each chapter. And still... I get called out on stuff._

 _The life of a writer must be really hard. The few of you who take fictional writing seriously, you have my condolences. You hold a talent, or a steel-trap mind, I will most likely never have. Kudos to you. I'm serious._

 _The original version of this story didn't have the protagonist being killed off, so even I'm kind of excited to see where this all goes from here. I do keep notes, but they're not very detailed; they're just little stuff to remind me of in case I forget. I like to be surprised too, you know._

 _Hmm... what else... nope, I got nothing. Merry late X-mas (or happy Hanukkah, whatever it is you celebrate during the winter holiday season) everyone! Next chapter will probably roll in some days after new years. I have some things to take care of before I start on the new chapter 5._

 _EDIT #1: Fixed a minor mistake that a reader pointed out. When Kai took off his oni ring, I meant to include that he put it in his pouch, but I guess I didn't. That mistake his been fixed._


	5. Chapter 5A part 1

**Review replies:** _Again, I'm doing this only for those without signed usernames since I can't normally reply to you via the website; I can only so in each chapter I write._

 **A). [Guest]:** _You know, I'm really glad you can't stand this type of main character. That's kind of what I was going for, since we're still at the beginning areas of the story and most of his traits aren't even fleshed out at all. My OC has no pride and self-worth because he feels like scum for leaving his friend behind to pursue a quest that wouldn't have mattered a whole lot since YGGDRASIL was going out of service soon anyway. So far, I've written him as kind of a loser, and I'm also glad you pointed that out because you're very correct in that regard. To keep this (relatively) short, you've basically read him correctly and reacted properly. This is how he was meant to be seen thus far._

 _By the way, you mentioned I no longer have a story since I killed off the protagonist. Need I remind you that this fanfiction revolves around an anime where resurrection is possible? Just let that sink in for a minute._

 **B). [Kazuya]:** _If you recall, he took off his oni ring before he was killed (so it wouldn't activate upon his death, causing him to heal to half total health and into Oni Awakening form), and that's the only ring he has on him, right now. I think I mentioned (did I?) that he has another divine-tier ring, but it's currently not with him. It's supposed to be with Momonga at the moment, for safe keeping. If I never included that tidbit in a previous chapter, then that's a big oversight since that ring plays an important role in the chapters to follow… at least according to the previous version of this story, which I will be using elements of._

 **C). [RebelRaven4]:** _Oh, well, thanks buddy. It's nice to get a positive nudge every now and then. I'll be honest with you, killing off my OC was not entirely in my original plans. I was letting my fingers smash that keyboard (after a new idea came to me) and then read the result afterward. I thought it was an interesting development and went with it without fully knowing how to continue. But that's the fun part about writing fiction, isn't it? Even the author isn't completely aware of what's going to happen. Or maybe that just means I'm a bad author who doesn't prepare adequate notes before writing a chapter. Man, I'd be a horrible deity… no wonder I fail at almost every Sims game I've played. Go figure._

 **D). [Igor Hernandez]:** _Let me just say that I do not know any shred of Spanish minus a few very basic words. I copied and pasted your review into google translate and I am hoping it came out right. By the translation that resulted… thanks for the thoughts. While I 'could' have Momonga revive Kai, I chose not to because… ugh, I can't say it here in case someone is reading this part before actually reading the chapter first. Skipping forward, it's flattering to be told that I know what to do in my own story… but I really don't. The fingers do, the brain doesn't. The brain sometimes gets neat ideas, but the fingers don't always listen. Hell of a combination, aren't they?_

 **E). [Guest #2]:** _It would definitely not be too far of a stretch to say that he could be resurrected… but not with gold; I think only the NPCs of Nazarick can be revived with gold, though I'm sure someone can dispute that. There's always Momonga's revival wand, or his Shooting Star ring. I could have gone that route, and believe me I was tempted, but I chose not to. I figured that's what a lot of people would expect me to write. That's also what I expected me to write. Was I disappointed with the direction I went with? I don't know, and that's really a strange answer. I shouldn't be, right? I feel like it's missing something, though, but I don't know what it is. Maybe you readers will think of something that I haven't. And trust me when I say that I do consider the ideas of my reviewers._

 _In fact, I was so clueless at how to go about chapter 5 that I decided to look through my reviews and penname messages to see what I could use from them. I got quite a few ideas, but decided not to completely use them word for word. I took bits and pieces, changed some things to suit the narrative, then mashed them like clay and included the results in this chapter._

 **[IMPORTANT NOTE]** _Okay, I think I need to get this out of the way before you start reading. This chapter has a lot of the word_ ' **darkness** ' _in it. I'm truly sorry for this. I consulted the thesaurus as best I could, but there were very few usable synonyms to match what this darkness is as it pertains to the chapter. Many synonyms are frequently used. I tried to spread them out, but it is literally… darkness._

 _Well, you'll find out… that is unless you drop the chapter because of the first few words. I know I cringed a bit, on this part, when I reread it, but I thought it was at least moderately funny. In fact, your mind's eye has probably read it already while reading through this message._

* * *

 **DISCLAIMER: I don't own Overlord. If I did, Lastborn would be renamed to Firstborn. Why? For comedic reasons.**

 **Overlord Chapter 5 (part 1)**

* * *

"Yuki, Yuki, Yuki, Yuki, Yuki, Yuki! Yuno wa mamotte ageru."

"Yuki, Yuki, Yuki, Yuki, Yuki, Yuki! Yuki wo miteita kara."

*smack*

I really need a new morning alarm song… that's what I think to myself every morning, and yet I've kept the same tune on my phone for years. I can't remember where it came from, only that when I heard it online, I found it atrocious, something I just couldn't listen to for more than five seconds. I've seen that song looped up the ass for over ten minutes, even ten hours. I was in the market for a new morning alarm song, since I somehow got used to this old heavy metal track I used to listen to and it just never woke me up in the morning.

Next thing I knew, that blasted ten-minute 'Yuki, Yuki, Yuki!' song was in my phone and was my new morning alarm.

I opened my eyes, seeing through the shaded visor of my DIVE headset. It's still powered on. That's weird… hold on.

If I heard my morning alarm, and I'm seeing through my headset's visor, that means I'm in my apartment room. What's the last thing that happened…? I was in the game, well, not really. It was a new world where YGGDRASIL's magic existed. I was there for a few days, as my in-game oni avatar. There were real people, real monsters, and… oh. I died. Yeah, that's right. I was killed by Nazarick's floor guardian leader, Albedo, in a fit of fury because I hurt Momonga by leaving the guild.

I died and now I'm back in my apartment. Do we just go back to our normal lives after perishing in that world? Well, either that or it was just a dream. There's no such thing as real magic or real monsters. The only magic I believe in is when my bank account somehow loses a few hundred yen and I simply cannot recall what happened to it. And the only monsters I believe in are some of my co-workers who can be real asses to work with. Bland and lame as it is, that's the reality. It was a hell of a dream, though, kind of like a real out-of-body experience.

Maybe I should quit reading so much fanfiction before I head into my evening DMMO time.

I found myself thinking about the old guild and what we accomplished together. Our greatest feat, I think, was conquering Nazarick and making it our guild base, and creating the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown. How long did it take us to make that? Months? Years? I can't remember. We battled all manner of creatures to collect the seven divine-tier gems embedded into the mouth of each king cobra sculpture on the golden staff. Herroherro, Bukubukuchagama, and Nishikienrai died so many times, and lost so many levels, while we were trying to secure the fire orb from Surtr, the strongest of the fire giants.

They were definitely my most treasured moments.

I was a bit envious of Momonga's staff – it rivaled the power of a world item. He never got to use it much, though, since its destruction meant the separation of the guild due to it acting as a symbol of our union. Well, I guess none of that really matters anymore. YGGDRASIL is gone; the company finally went under due to loss of players paying subscription. It was a decent game at first, and people loved it because of the literally thousands of job classes and spells to discover and use for customizing their own online avatar. It was all great until the introduction of pay-to-win cash shop items.

To say they were overpowered was an understatement.

The people who couldn't fork over the extra real life cash reached a ceiling really fast, and were left in the dust by the ones who bought cash shop items. There was only so much a player could get with just gold. By the time the average player reached a total level of 100, it was pretty much expected that they spent at least some money aside from the monthly subscription. Eventually, the corporation started feeling the backlash of their players not playing the game anymore.

Heavily populated servers became deserts, and it all went downhill from there. Dungeon and raid queue times shot through the roof, arena and battlegrounds queues also took almost forever, and major towns became devoid of the lively players it once had. It was mostly the weaker players who left first, as they were most often bullied by the more powerful ones. Unfortunately, it was a sad truth that at least half of the player base consisted of casual players. When they were bullied into quitting the game, not to mention the ones playing as non-human-type characters, YGGDRASIL lost a good amount of its income.

The development team tried their best to keep the game running, even dropping it down to free-to-play status with lots of heavy discounts in the cash shop. They had to lay off a lot of employees due to financial problems, and those employees started working on their own projects. But none of its attempts to remain afloat worked; its reputation as an elitist, pay-to-win, game was just that bad. Former players wrote about it in their blogs and their online articles. In no time at all, the once famed YGGDRASIL eventually became a thing of the past.

I sometimes wonder if the money I spent in YGGDRASIL was worth it, since the game was now closed. Instead of starting a retirement plan, I put some money away, per pay check, to spend on items in game so I could stay ahead of the curve. Well, again, it doesn't matter now. In three days, I'll have a new game to burn all my money into. I beta-tested that game, and it was pretty cool. There weren't nearly as many different job classes, not by a long shot, but it looks promising. Time moves forward, and YGGDRASIL had its last day.

I sighed and got up to stretch, then entered the bathroom to get the shower going. Oh, wait, I'm forgetting my towel. I'm alone in my apartment, but it always feels weird to walk around naked. I grabbed a towel from the top-most compartment of my drawer and pushed it back in. I looked to the mirror, in front of me, and examined my growing beard. That's not good – that needs to come off soon.

On my way back to the bathroom, I noticed a head of white hair on me as I walked past my mirror. I felt a tingle crawl up my spine as my feet slowly walked themselves back to the mirror, despite my mind's protests, and examined myself. I sighed and indeed saw white hair… white strands of hair. I actually thought I saw some kind of demon or monster. I really have to quit being so superstitious about things. It must be stress from overwork or playing too much at so late in the evening.

"That or the fact that I have no idea what to talk about during my first date with Akashiya, after work," I found myself saying. Wait, date? Is that today?! Shit! Gotta shave! Wait, shower first! Then shave! No, the order's wrong! Toothbrush first! Then shower, then shave, then deodorant! I can't believe I forgot about today. But that's what I get for playing too much damn online games. No matter, YGGDRASIL is gone. Maybe now I can focus on getting a proper handle on having a social life.

If I play my cards right, I might even get a girlfriend out of this.

* * *

"Suzuki, can you take care of this?" asked my co-worker, Kishihiro Daisuke, star employee of the firm accounting firm I work at, as he slapped a bunch of rubber-band-strapped documents on my desk. He had his usual crew of drinkers behind him, looking at me like lions to a piece of meat. I tore my eyes from my computer monitor to look at the large stack of papers. "I have to head to lunch in a minute and there's no way I can get all this done."

"I couldn't possibly. It would take at least-"

"Thanks, you're the best!" he said, patting me on the back as he walked away with his buddies. I let out a groan as my forehead dropped to my desk. I took a scissor and cut the band that held it all together. The rubber snapped hard, almost hitting my hand in the process as it lashed off. I took the paper at the top most and glanced at it quickly. Well, at least it's just data entry. Still, this will cut into my break time for sure.

"And the tool strikes his bitch again with the leather whiplash," said another co-worker, Haruyama Ayume, a woman with the body of one but was more of a man than some guys around here. She definitely has a feminine shape and sense of fashion, but it's really her take-no-prisoners and show-no-mercy attitude that made other employees, even Kishihiro, not want to mess with her. I minimized the current window on my screen and opened a new file as I started entering numbers into the system.

The brunette arched her back as she peered over to my cubicle. Haruyama wore the same uniform that female employees have to wear, around here: a black knee skirt, a white, form-fitting, long sleeve blouse, and an optional black blazer on top. Men wear the same thing, except trousers instead of a skirt. I always did have a thing for girls with long straight hair, and Haruyama definitely has that. It goes down to her back, just above the end of her spine.

"I don't get it, why don't you just report that fucker?" she asked, walking over to me and took the next paper in the stack and looked over it. "This is easy shit. The new guy can do this so fast. You're a senior employee, so why don't you just give it to him? He could use the experience."

"And risk him making mistakes when he sends these over? It'll be my ass on the line if the star pupil gets lectured by the boss for making newbie errors," I told her, putting the current paper to a basket and snatched the one she was holding. "And he's the grandson of the company CEO. He's borderline untouchable. It would just be a wasted effort."

Haruyama leaned on the plastic, gray, divider that separated my cubicle from the empty one behind me. Come to think of it, most of the employees of our department had already left for lunch. Haruyama, though working on the cubicle just next to me, works for a different department and so takes her lunch at a different time. I glanced at the numbers on the page and mindlessly punched in the numbers. There were also some calculations to be done, which I did in my head before putting it all in.

"Anyway, today is the day, huh?"

"Nope. My SAO copy doesn't arrive for another three days."

"I don't mean that, you nerd. I meant Akashiya, the girl you've been ogling for months," she said, looking several cubicles over. I flinched when she said that. I don't even know what to talk about. All I really do is play online games. Will she think I'm a loser who doesn't have a social life? And what happens if she asks to meet my friends? I don't really have friends, except maybe Haruyama. We went to high school together, but we didn't really hang out or anything. We just happened to have the same classes, and then land a job at the same firm.

"There she is, bringing coffee to her desk, all sexy and hard at work as usual. I can see why you have a thing for her. I might too, if we had different… well, packages," she said.

I almost found that hard to believe. Haruyama may come off as manly, but it isn't always the case. She has a boyfriend who comes to her place often; I visited her once, to drop off some work documents when she called in sick. That day, I learned that not only was she not ill to begin with, she wasn't as masculine as she led everyone to believe. With her apartment door unlocked, oddly enough, I walked into a sight I'd do anything to erase from my memory. She had a cat costume worn, and a neck leash. They were getting it on, furry style.

Crap, I made a mistake. Better correct it.

Haruyama and I were never really close, even as high school peers, but she comes to my desk much more often now, than before. I wonder if she's worried I'll spill her submissive secret to our co-workers. Needless to say, we've been spending more time together since then… more time than I'd care to think of.

"That girl is cute as hell! I still can't believe she said yes to a dweeb like you," she said. I decided to ignore it so I could continue with my work. "Dude, drop what you're doing, right now. Get over there and compliment her looks. Girls love that sort of thing."

"What are you talking about? You used to hate it when guys came up to you, in high school, saying you were pretty and how they'd like to go out with you," I replied absentmindedly. I had about 10 percent of my brain listening to her, about 20 percent on my work, and the rest thinking of what to talk about during my date, later. Haruyama leaned against the same divider again.

"Tch, none of the guys at school really did it for me. The only ones who came to talk to me were those mindless jocks who thought that just because they were at the top of their game, it meant they could get any girl they wanted," she said. I merely grunted. Her arm slung across the back of my shoulder as she lowered her face to the opposite side of my mine. "But you know, I had a thing for dweebs like you. I'm not sure why, but the geeky little nerd types really had me going."

She forcefully tapped my shoulder as she stood up straight, walking up behind me.

"Why didn't you ever ask me out, you ass?" she asked, taking one of my finished papers. She crumpled it and threw it in the garbage can next to my cubicle.

"Did you think you made yourself approachable to guys like me? You came off as someone who'd wring my neck if I looked at you in a weird way. Besides, your boyfriend is pretty much my polar opposite, isn't he? You'd have gotten sick of me so fast."

"There you go, making excuses for yourself instead of just going for it. Damn the consequences. You never even considered my side of the story," she said.

"Let's be real, I wasn't your type," I said, finishing my eighth paper as I grabbed another from the stack.

"Oh, you're insufferable… but not wrong," she said. "Tell you what, if your date goes badly, come to my place. You don't work tomorrow, right? We'll toast your Hugh-Mungus failure and maybe you can help me with that weird game my boyfriend plays on my computer."

"I thought you hated video games."

"I do. I just play it because he gets a kick out of watching me play. It's not all that interesting – I don't know what is it about video games you nerds like so much," she said as I started on my tenth paper. I won't tell her, but I appreciate her talking to me like this. It helps to pass the time while I do something as mindless as data entry. "I just hope he fondles me, or goes down on me, while I'm doing one of those dungeon things he talks about."

"I imagine you wouldn't be able to concentrate, die, and become a detriment to your team."

"But it would make for a sweet excuse to fuck, right?" she asked. I rolled my eyes as she made her way back to her desk. "Remember, just play it cool. Worst case scenario, it goes south. There are other girls in the world. And until you find someone else, granted you fail this one, you can help me with a little crisis my boyfriend and I are in."

"No, I'm not going to fix your computer."

"Not that. I meant you could be our guy," she said, rolling her chair over to me. "My boy has this weird shit on his bucket list; he wants a threesome and, as I remember it, you aren't too bad in the sack, right?"

That sent a tingle up my spine as my keystrokes halted completely. I turned to her. She was smiling cheek to cheek.

"Listen, that didn't happen, you hear me? I had one drink, ONE! And you swore you'd never bring that up again!" I hissed, taking her shoulders. I felt my body heat up. "That conversation is NSFW!"

Haruyama scoffed at me.

"It was more like a sip and you were gone. It was funny!" she laughed at my displeasure. My hand hit my face, hard, as I turned back to my monitor. She leaned against my shoulder. "What happened after was the night to remember. Boy-toy was out cold, so he didn't see us do anything. I had a lot of fun, you know, and I never told him about any of it. He doesn't need to know about our little… adventure."

"I'm. Not. Listening," I said, covering my ears. Haruyama grabbed my hands and pulled them off my head.

"And that is precisely the problem," she said seriously. "Believe it or not, I'm trying to help you. Ever since I've known you, you've had problems. Hell, we all have problems. But you can't just keep ignoring what happened. Face it head on, dweeb! Where's your pride and self-worth as a man? You were like a tiger, fearless predator extraordinaire, and I was the helpless prey. I don't often get to feel that way, even with my boy. Us girls like that sort of thing, you know."

I pulled my hands from her, wondering what's gotten her worked up all of a sudden.

"What the hell's your problem? I told you, I don't remember any of that. I drank whatever that was you gave me, and I woke up the next morning, late for work, and with a horrible hangover," I told her. She sighed, stepped back, and flashed an unconvinced smile.

"Fine. Give her hell, lover boy," she said, returning to her desk. I watched her go back to work for a second before hitting mine up as well. That was a weird burst, coming from her. Normally, she doesn't care what I do or how I go about things in my life. What's gotten her extra assertive today?

I wouldn't say we're friends, at least not really; we've hung out a few times after work, but that mostly consisted of her getting plastered. She would offer me a drink too, but I'm not really a drinker myself. I did drink that… whatever that was… that she gave me, but that was it. They say alcohol is a good substance for socializing. Maybe my not drinking hampers my ability to socialize. No, I think it's the gamer in me. I've played video games all my life – it's all I know, everything else is secondary.

Games weren't just an escape for me, it's what taught me right from wrong, a job that's supposed to have been delegated to my parents. Dad's a businessman, so he's always out on trips. Mom's a voice-over actress for tons of popular video or online games and anime. We all get to see each other maybe a small handful of times per year. And while I was growing up, it was normally just me and my game controller or keyboard. I know my parents meant well, always trying to provide and all, but I was never really taught how to properly act around other people.

And I was okay with it.

As Haruyama said, we all have problems, but I never really learned how to deal with them except ignoring them or turning away. I mostly kept to myself in school, put up a face when I had to, for whatever the occasion, but never tried to connect with any of my peers at any grade level. During lunch times, I'd sit either by myself or with others. Some would talk to me, but giving them any real responses took too much effort, so I gave lame and baseless replies. Maybe they eventually caught on that I wasn't such a good person to hang out with.

Within the game world, though, it's kind of different. I'm someone else, anyone I want to be. This is true in the outside world as well, but life is always full of problems. In the game world, there are no problems, very few consequences, and a whole world to conquer without caring about the feelings of others. Maybe that's why I liked YGGDRASIL so much. I could let out my frustrations on monsters and weak players whenever they came around. My demeanor was different in games. I've often dreamed of living in a game world, because of my problems in this world.

Was that what triggered such a realistic dream, last night? I could have sworn all of that was real. I still remember the thrill of sparring Narberal, and Momonga. I was really into it, and I felt more alive in that dream than I do here. I still remember getting slashed to bits by Albedo – that pain was definitely real. But that dream had other problems too. It was hard facing Momonga, knowing I left him behind without a proper good bye, after all he's done for me. On the way to work, I wondered if things were better this way. If that dream was real, now he can just focus on ruling that world.

Still… I'd like to go back, if only to see him again and apologize for leaving so abruptly.

"Did you say something?" asked Haruyama, peeking into my cubicle again. I shook my head at her, then squinted my eyes as I noticed something I didn't see before.

"No, but are you sweating? You look like you're having a hard time," I said to her.

Her chest was rising and falling much faster than earlier. I didn't even notice until now. I found that odd as Haruyama, at least in high school, was always in sports teams and kept herself in shape. I don't think she's doing anything physically strenuous right now, though whatever goes on in her cubicle is her business. She looks light-headed, her eyelids are getting droopy. Is she sleepy? But it's only a little past twelve. Maybe she had a long night and burned the midnight oil.

"Uh, you want me to call the-"

"No, no, it's fine, I'm fine. I was just… just doing naughty girl stuff under my desk," she said with a plastered grin on her face. How she can smile after telling me something as embarrassing as that is beyond me. Just like that, I no longer wished to know more. She made her way back to her desk. At the corner of my eye, I saw her stumble a little. That must've been some pencil action…

A moment later, there was a thump.

"Hey, someone fainted! We need some help here!"

… or that's what I expected someone would say as Haruyama collapsed on the floor, breathing heavily and sweating badly. I rushed to her, checking for vitals. I worked as a certified life guard, back in college, so this stuff is second nature to me. While I checked her out, I noticed no one else was doing anything to help her. They were just minding their business, as if nothing out of the ordinary is happening. I can't believe this!

"Hey, Haruyama fainted! What the hell! Get some help!" I said to them, but they didn't respond. It's like we're invisible to them. I heard Haruyama grunt as I looked to her. She opened her eyes and winced at a passing man. His head suddenly jerked and glanced below.

"Crap! Hey, are you okay?" he asked, kneeling to her.

The fuck? Did he not notice her before? Well, whatever, at least he's dialing his phone for what I assumed to be help. I picked up my co-worker and took her to the break room. On my way, I saw that none of my other asshole co-workers were doing anything, just keeping to themselves like all was right in the world. Haruyama's eyes closed as she fainted again. And that's when strange thing number two… or three… happened. The man calling for help just dropped his phone on the floor and returned to his desk.

Tch, fine, you dick.

I sat her down and grabbed some ice from the freezer, along with a towel from the cupboard, then gave the wrapped content to her. When she wouldn't take it, obviously passed out, I placed it over her heated forehead myself and put pressure on her hand on the towel so it would stay there and not slip off. I put a hand to her cheek, she was burning up like crazy. If this is a fever, it can't be normal. How is it she was fine just a while ago and then she suddenly gets all beat and collapsed?

"The hell kind of orgasm did she have?" I found myself muttering. I shook my head vehemently. Now is not the time for that nonsense.

Her hand fell limp beside her. I took the towel and wiped it all over her face. The ice was melting pretty fast too. Okay, this is some intense paranormal shit. A fever doesn't melt ice this fast; it's practically liquefying right in front of me, in seconds. The woman raised her hand and placed it on my shoulder. Suddenly, a blue jolt of electricity coursed from her hand and through my body. I jumped back in response as the towel fell to the floor. Her face was turning redder by the second. She got up slowly and reached for me as she limped over, kind of like the walking dead.

I crawled backward, scared out of my mind, until my back hit the wall.

I put my hands up.

"Don't kill me!" I shouted, panicking as I shut my eyes in fear. Haruyama's body fell on me, unconscious again. I opened one eye slowly, then the other, as I saw the girl on top of my pathetic form. Every exhale that left her mouth seemed to burn into my shirt. I pushed her off me and quickly crawled to my left, watching her for further movements. Just then, the building shook once. It was a light shake, and then it trembled again but much stronger than before. I stood and left the break room, seeing something out of a horror movie.

The workroom was fading into some kind of abyss, pitch-black darkness.

My co-workers were typing away into their keyboards like it was just another day in the office. When I tried to run to them, however, a large gash appeared on my chest, causing me to stumble back into the break room as I fell to my butt, grasping my chest. I'm bleeding, but why? When? How? It just appeared as soon as I tried to get to my co-workers. I watched them get sucked into some sort of vortex, computers and all, until the only thing that remained of any resemblance to my workplace was the breakroom.

I clenched my eyes shut as hands crawled up the side of my head.

"This isn't real, this isn't, real, this isn't real!"

 **Oh, but it is.**

I opened my eyes, looking around me. I'm hallucinating. This is a nightmare. Something spoke in reply to my hysteria, sounding like the devil from a really bad anime, but I can't see anything. I felt Haruyama's hand fall on my arm. With great difficulty, she pulled herself to me and picked herself up. Before she could stand properly, she coughed some blood out and almost fell back down but managed to keep enough balance to remain standing. She looked towards the darkness.

"I won't let… you take… him!" she said. I stood up and walked to her side and clasped my mouth at what I saw. Blood was seeping from the side of her mouth. What scared me shitless, though, was the blood trickling down her eyes. Haruyama's hand grasped my arm. "No way… over my… dead… body…!"

 **That can be arranged.**

Instantly, my co-worker was pushed back to the wall and kept there with black tendrils that wrapped around her body. I was about to shout her name when another large gash appeared across my chest. I leaned against the wall, in pain. Where are these wounds coming from?! I tried to run to her, watching as the tendrils attempt to crush her. Haruyama spat more blood out and opened one eye as she reached for me, but we were too far apart. Rope-like vines shot around me, and pulled me from her.

The black vines turned me from Haruyama so that I was peering deep into a single large black oval the size of my form. It was a white-traced, all around the life-sized circle. Smaller circles formed rings inside the bigger one. More rings appeared inside each ring that circled it until I was staring into the bullseye of the globe, a red pupil enflamed by a black, burning shadow. I felt another gash on top of my second one. I don't have to see it to know that each slash wound is becoming larger than the previous, and definitely much more painful.

"The hell? What are you?!" I said to the shadow-engulfed eye.

 **I am your darkest nightmares come to life, and I am here to eat you.**

Darkest nightmares? I… what?

 **I have inhabited countless souls in the eons past, but yours has been the trickiest to devour so far. It's not that you're particularly special, but your sword has been fighting me from the start, a real nuisance, ever since you released me from my seal.**

"Sword? Seal? What are you talking abo-"

A stream of lightning shot from behind me, right at the edge of the monster's outermost eye. The creature howled in pain as its grip on me momentarily loosened. I tried to wiggle out, but it only crushed tighter. I can feel my blood seeping out. It was already doing so before, but now it's coming out faster. I felt one eye droop to a close due to copious amounts of blood loss as I turned behind to see smoke hissing out of Haruyama's slashed-up hand and arm.

"Let him… go!" she said. What the… lightning? Does Haruyama have magic? The dark eye ceased squirming in agony, and glanced to my co-worker. She let out another shout of pain, echoing into my ears. It's like I could feel her anguish, somewhat. I can feel her bones being crushed by this monster. It's slashing her up, just like it's doing to me. I turned to the creature again. It's got us completely under its mercy. Why doesn't it just finish us? I thought it wanted to eat me, so why doesn't it just get it over with?

 **Bitch! Why won't you just die!** The creature screamed. It pulled Haruyama from the wall, raised her up, and slammed her to the floor. She coughed another bit of blood out.

"Fight! … fight, please! … Kais- gyahh!" she yelled out, looking to me painfully, panting harder than ever. With every other exhale, more of her blood escaped her mouth. It's like she was coughing it off, just trying to hold on to life. "I'm sorry… I can't… beat it… alone! You have to… you have to… fight! Face… face it head… on. Stop running… stop it! Fight it or… or we both die!"

"Haruyama! What… I-"

"This world, I… to prote… you. But I… I can't anymo... Dark… ness. It's… it's so strong!" she said as the tendrils that kept her bound raised her up and slammed her to the floor once more. I watched as her bindings crushed the life out of her with each successful bash. I tried to break free from my own predicament, but the black vines were spiked with thorns and they were piercing into me. Haruyama aimed her hand at me and shot another stream of lightning, but it was much weaker than before. It reached the eye, causing it to weaken its hold slightly, but enough for me to get one arm out.

 **This is the end for you, little sword!** This time, the eye generated multiple sharpened lances next to it as they launched at the helpless Haruyama. I watched as they flew at her in slow motion.

What am I doing? Why can't I get out of this? No, better yet, why does it keep talking about a sword. In fact, it referred to Haruyama as a sword. But that's not right, she's a person! And it said my sword has been fighting it from the beginning, ever since I released it from its seal. But when did I do that? I don't remember releasing anything from any seal, and I don't even own a sword. I mean, I have decorative one that I bought from an anime-expo, a few years back, but that's as far as I go with owning weapons.

More importantly, a lot of what Haruyama said doesn't make sense. She said she created this world to protect me.

What does that mean? Protect me from what? She said we would both die if I didn't fight this monster. But how can I fight it if I don't even know what it is? All I see is a big eye that keeps spouting nonsense. It's going on about how it's my darkest nightmare come to life. But that's not possible. My darkest nightmare, no, my deepest regret, is when I left Ainz Ooal Gown. I wanted to be there with Momonga, to watch the last few seconds of YGGDRASIL's timer go down before the game went out of service.

In my dream, I saw him again as Momon, and we even did some brief traveling together. Why did I not just tell him it was me in that shoddy outfit? I told myself I was waiting for an opportune moment, a dynamic entry, but that was a lie. I didn't want to reveal myself to him at all because I was afraid that he would lay down the rage at me, for leaving the guild the way I did. I didn't want to face that, and I found it easier to simply live my life as someone else, free from the biggest mistake I made to the one I respected the most in the entire game.

But, now that I think about it, I already know the answer to this problem, don't I? I mean, I know it was a dream, but as I lay dying in his arms, he told me he received the mail I sent about leaving the guild to pursue my solo quest. He said he got it, and that he was patiently waiting for me to come back. An angry person would have wanted me gone for good. Whether he said that because I lay dying before him, or he actually meant it, I'm not exactly sure. But it's all I have going right now. Damn, now I'm curious. I actually want to know now, more than ever, if he meant what he said, that he was really waiting for me to return.

But how can I do that when I'm bound here, unable to do anything to help out the one who keeps trying to save me? It was then I felt a slight tingle of electricity on my hand. When Haruyama reached for me, some of her electricity seeped into me… but that's not the first time that happened, was it? In my dream, when I faced Albedo after she let her anger out about the others leaving the guild, and me turning away from Momonga when he needed us, I accepted her reasoning and found myself wanting to give up – to just let Albedo take her rage out on me.

It was my fault that Momonga was saddened, that she witnessed this drama about her creators. She, being the one more than infatuated with the guild master, saw it fit to take down those who meant him harm. I didn't mean to put Momonga in the dumps, but that's what resulted from my actions anyway. Instead of apologizing to him, to his face, I did it when I lay dying and refused to be healed. The moment I found the opportunity to escape, I took it without a second thought. I didn't even consider Momonga's feelings, the one I ended up hurting.

I was only looking out for number one, trying to escape a mistake I didn't want to face. Why? Because I didn't want him to hate me for what I did, the man I respected the most.

I found myself laughing in the inside, starting to piece all of this together. The clues were blatantly obvious, it's a wonder how I missed them. Then again, I wasn't really looking. All I've ever done is run from adversity, to ignore my problems until they were out of my mind. When Haruyama was talking to me about my date with Akashiya, she mentioned something about facing my problems head on. I thought she was just being a pain, like usual, but she really was trying to help me out. She said she knew of my problems, even when we first met, but I'd always push them aside because I didn't want to deal with them.

But it's my fault she's about to die after trying desperately to protect me. She's gone so far, and even said she wouldn't let this monster have me, even if she had to give her own life. I didn't understand it at first, or maybe I didn't want to. And now that I think about it, I don't think I really know the difference. Right now, there's only one thought in mind… well, two, but one is more important than the other.

I want to see Momonga again, to tell him, straight out, that I'm sorry for leaving. I always was, but I just couldn't face my guilt. I never learned how to. But now, I don't care. If he doesn't forgive me, so be it. I probably wouldn't either. But I'm tired of ignoring this as it eats me out from the inside. Is that what this fiend is? It's my worst nightmare come to life, and it's been eating away at me because I let it. Well that stops now. If there's one thing I can't stand, it's pain; I hate it, and I want it gone.

Secondly, there's someone about to die fighting for me. I suppose I can't let that happen. After all, we're soul-bound, right?

"Raijin, come forth!" I shouted, calling out to Haruyama, extending my free hand.

My co-worker closed her eyes as white light took over her form. Before her body vanished, replaced by a surge of blue electricity, I saw… no, I felt her smile. Whether it's because I finally realized what she had been telling me, or that I just saved her from being impaled by dark spears, that's not in my mind right now.

Haruyama, my co-worker… those words never felt so true. She is my partner, the one who risked her life to protect me. Now I have to do the same- no. I want to do the same. I've been a shitty master so far. What kind of Supreme Being would I be if I let this pass? It's only now that Momonga's inspiring words rang into my ears. The name Ainz Ooal Gown doesn't know defeat. As one who once carried that name on my shoulders, I cannot afford to stain that title with my idiocy. Hmph, Haruyama is right.

I really am a dweeb.

The lightning energy shot to my hand, forming a ball of crackling blue and white. I grasped it hard, causing it to transform into a steel hilt bound in black leather. Three silver oval rings, and a lightning bolt charm attached to the end, acted as a tail for the blade that formed at the base of the intricately-carved gold handguard that symbolized a cloud that was pierced by thunder. I raised the divine sword, a katana, as blue sparks danced all around it, and stabbed the black binding that tried to crush the life out of me.

The abyssal eye creature roared loud as I fell from its grasp. I kicked off of it, landing on the breakroom of my firm. I wondered why this place stayed, when everything else was sucked in by the darkness, but that's not important now. I glanced up to the fiendish creature as it writhed and suffered from the stab I gave it. I felt something close on my chest. I looked down, watching as my wounds quickly heal. All three slashes closed shut. My office uniform was, then, replaced with my dark legendary-tier equipment from YGGDRASIL. I felt Raijin generate even more lightning than before. I found myself smirking.

Hmph, so it wasn't a dream after all. If I still have my sword and YGGDRASIL equipment, if magic still works around here, then I'm still not in the world I came from. I'm not completely sure what's going on here, or where this dark world is. But one thing is for sure: I have my partner to thank, Haruyama, for not giving up on me.

 **No, this is not possible!**

"Yes it is. I won't let this guilt eat me up anymore. You have no power over me!" I shouted, Raijin's lightning shining brighter and stronger until it started driving the abyss away, revealing spots of pure white. I felt some weight being lifted from my shoulders as my sword began clearing the dark clouds that seemed to latch onto my soul. I closed my eyes slowly, my body feeling lighter than ever. The feeling is serene, majestic even; it's like this guilt has been with me for ages, and I'm now only feeling what it's like to walk as a free man, unchained and unbound by the shame that's been dragging me down.

The creature flailed wavy tendrils all around it. Two tendrils came my way. I cut them both and swung my sword at the abyssal eye, discharging a crescent slash of lightning at it. The white-blue energy formed a ring around the creature and exploded. I felt the world around me shake again, like before. The breakroom, the final semblance of my office firm, began to shake and rattle.

 _"Hurry! Your body is taking too much damage! You need to drive the dark spirit away or we both die!"_ said a voice beside me. I turned around, seeing nothing but blackness and the cracking wall of my break room. _"Me, you dweeb, Raijin! Ugh, this is what I get for having a god-descendant for a master instead of an actual god. You're so difficult!"_

"Uh… what?"

 _"Never mind! Just destroy it now!"_ said Raijin… or Haruyama, its voice pounding in my ears like a thundering storm. I'll definitely revisit this later – my sword talking to me and this god and god-descendant stuff. At least she sounds healthy, unlike before when she was falling apart and getting crushed into oblivion.

I leaped to the abyssal eye, cutting up any tendrils that shot at me. I grabbed onto the edge of the eye, reeled my sword back, and pierced at the center. The eye flailed even harder as it began to dissipate. With nothing to hold on to, I started to fall until I activated flying magic and levitated. I watched as light pierced through the darkness around me until all of it was expelled; I floated in a completely white room, devoid of anything but myself and the sword of crackling thunder that I held in my hand.

"Haruyama…" I said, attempting to speak to it.

 _"Raijin,"_ it corrected. The fact that it still used Haruyama's female voice was not helping. _"Don't call me by your high school buddy's name. That's just a form I used to knock some sense into your thick head."_

"Um…"

 _"Not now. Look, I know you have questions, but this fight isn't over yet, so I'll give you the Sparknotes version,"_ she said as I turned to the glowing blade. The lightning that once danced around it had faded. Even the glow on it was starting to disappear, leaving behind a glimmering silver steel blade. _"I know you don't know what you are; you're a god-descendant, which means you come from a family line that was started by a deity. I don't know which one, but that doesn't matter. I normally can't talk to you, like this, because you're not a god but one that descended from a god's line."_

 _"I'm what's known as a godsword, the ultimate weapon of a deity,"_ she said as my body began to fade. My sword did, too, as well as the white room that housed us. _"Only a god or a god's descendant can wield a godsword. But since you're not a god, I can only talk to you inside your subconscious or someone else's if you exist in it. The world I created is starting to disappear because it's no longer needed; you dispelled the darkness from within, but you didn't destroy it. We'll return to the physical world soon, where you must finish it off for good. Otherwise, it will find other hosts and feed off of their deepest sins and regrets."_

 _"What? When did I release- and wait, how do I defeat it?! You're a godsword… thing, so how do I do it?"_

 _"If I knew how to destroy it, I would have; you'll have to figure that out on your own. I only know that you've had it in you for a few days – less than a week. I've been trying to purge it from your soul, since, but it was getting too strong. I brought you into your own subconscious to convince you to not give up on life so easily; yes, you made mistake, all mortals do. But if you truly wish for redemption, death isn't the answer. If you want forgiveness, reach for it with your bare hands,"_ she said as my arm was forcibly pulled to my chest.

I felt something wrap its arms around me, it was warm and calming.

 _"Fair enough. But if all I had to do was forgive myself in order to be cleansed, why didn't you just tell me? You could have escaped a lot of suffering."_

 _"It doesn't work that way,"_ she said. _"If I just told you the answer, there would be no meaning in your redemption; it would have been weak, not enough to vanquish the strong guilt that your corruption was feeding on. You had to realize it for yourself, then make the conscious decision to seek forgiveness on your own. I can yell at you to do something, but it's ultimately on you to act on what you feel is best. I can only trust in the choices of my master."_

 _"I don't know when we'll be able to talk like this again, but know that I will always be with you. I will protect you, even at the cost of my own. This is my oath as a blade of divinity. I will not allow anyone else to wield me, not even a full-fledged god who can kick your ass ten times over."_

I felt myself at ease when she said that.

 _"Hmph. You sure you want to be stuck with a dweeb like me?"_ I asked, my voice trembling. I wanted to hide it with laughter, but not being honest with myself was one of the reasons I fell into this mess. _"You almost died because I couldn't get past the guilt that's been with me since I left the guild."_

The presence that wrapped around me, did so a little tighter.

 _"Oh shut up. You were able to forgive yourself for it and move forward, that's what matters. And I stand with you, always, because no other godsword can possibly have the patience to deal with such a bonehead of a master,"_ she said as my eyelids closed slowly, allowing the warm feeling to wash over me. All my worries, all my concerns, every ounce of it left me as this soothing feeling surrounded me. It was relaxing. _"By the way, I don't like being a claymore. I'm getting rid of this ridiculous transmogrification. Don't ever change my body again, or I will electrocute you."_

I chose not to argue as Raijin and I vanished from my subconscious together. To be honest, I was starting to get tired of the claymore look myself. Maybe it's the Japanese blood in me that wants to live and die by the katana. Who knows? If I'm still in the new world, I may actually live by Raijin, and die with her by my side. That's essentially how my dream turned out… which I realize is no longer a dream but a world she created for me. But what was it that created that world? I didn't see any weaving of magic or other shenanigans being pulled. When did Raijin have the time to do that?

So many problems, so little time to deal with them. But I'll handle it the way I always do – tackle each one as they come, and there's one that's really important right now. I have to defeat this spirit before it hurts anyone else.


	6. Chapter 5A part 2

**Overlord Chapter 5 (part 2)**

* * *

*Bzzzt*

"Ow!" I said, my hand jolting back from the sudden zap of electricity from my sword.

I opened my eyes, seeing a black axe coming down at me. I leaped backward to avoid it. As I landed, I dropped to a knee, feeling the painful slashes on me rapidly closing until I nothing was left but some stray blood and my torn shirt and pants. I snapped my fingers and tapped my chest, replacing the rags with my entire enchanted legendary outfit. I felt something cylindrical and metallic on my left hand – it was Raijin's sheath, strapped to my left hip, and it was returned to its katana form. Smoke was hissing from the hilt, and my right hand. I smirked, then chuckled a bit.

That was uncalled for. But it's okay, I'll let it slide this time. I stood, a hand on my sword as I looked around the area.

I expected Momonga, Nfirea, Shizuko, and the Swords of Darkness to be here, but they aren't. All I see are the two floor guardians and Albedo. I could have sworn the others would be here… or was that an illusion too? Raijin pulsed in my hands, sending out another electrical jolt through my body. I was about to berate my blade for shocking me again, when the reason coursed through my brain. She did this before, yeah, in that not-so-dream-like sequence I had. Before Albedo started hacking away at me, I sheathed my sword and it started fighting against me, not wanting to be put away.

She also shocked me, then, if I recall.

I see, so that's it. Everything after the shock was part of the illusion world Raijin created for me. I was in there for hours, from the time I was being hacked away by Albedo, to just seconds after the dark world around me started to be pierced with light and thunder. I also disappeared from that place, and found myself here. That means I never died, and Shizuko never came in here with Momonga and the others. The biggest thing is Momonga still doesn't know who I am. The me of yesterday would have taken this blessing and continued to run away. But Raijin would probably be pissed at me if I did that.

Albedo turned to me and gritted her teeth, rushing forth but stopped as a black smoke shot down from the sky and into her mouth. Damn it, I didn't even see it or felt its presence! So much for defeating it before it could hurt someone else. Now what do I do?

"Albedo, what is it?!" Aura asked apprehensively, sprinting to the succubus as she flailed about. Aura shook her by the leg, but it wasn't helping.

"Aura, get away from her!" I yelled to the dark elf, but she didn't seem to hear me. Shalltear ran to the other side of Aura but didn't glance to the dark cloud entering Albedo's mouth. Do they not see what I'm seeing? When the cloud had finished entering her, Albedo's eyes flashed black and let out a piercing wave of energy as she shouted to the sky. The ground trembled, breaking apart. I almost lost my footing, and this is just from a mere shout.

Shit.

"Death Grip!" I called out as black and purple chains of energy spurted from my palms, towards the shorter women.

The dark spell wrapped around their waists as I pulled them to me, then drew my blade and raised it in front of us, forming a barrier of white-blue electricity. The black force from the enraged raid boss struck at my barrier, threatening to tear it apart, but it held steady. The floor guardians turned away, arms brought up front. When Albedo stopped, the lightning barrier around us disappeared as well. The spirit inside me must have gone to her. But it has to feed on something, the same way it fed on the guilt I carried and didn't forgive myself for.

Albedo glared at me, her mouth foaming with dark energy that seeped out slowly.

"I'll kill you for hurting my love, Lord Kaiserius!" she said, charging forward. I met her halfway as our weapons clashed, trying to overpower each other. That might have been an overstatement, as I was the one being pushed back.

The hell? She's so strong! Is it because of that fiend? Raijin said I had it for a few days, but I don't remember being as strong as Albedo, despite our differing status as player and NPC. I feel about as strong now as I was when I had that monster inside me. Albedo, as a raid boss, is normally stronger than a level-capped YGGDRASIL player, but not much stronger if she's being fought solo. YGGDRASIL dungeon, raid, and open-world bosses have a special mechanic in which their overall stats increase based on the number of people fighting them.

Since it's just me, Albedo should only be a touch stronger. She shouldn't able to overpower me so easily. If so, it really must be the dark spirit inside. There's no other explanation.

Raijin created a burst of lightning at the impact of our blades, surging through Albedo's body. Each clash conjured a shock from my godsword, striking my opponent every time. I swerved behind her and swung my leg at her waist, launching her about five meters to the side. The possessed succubus picked herself up, her flaming-black, hellish, eyes still on me. She said she'd kill me for hurting Momonga.

"So that's it… the darkness is feeding on the hatred she has for me, because I left Momonga," I said to myself. By the pattern I'm seeing, it has to feed on some kind of malicious emotion.

"Lord Kaiserius, what is going on?!" asked Shalltear.

"Albedo has been possessed by something, a dark spirit that was once inside me until I expelled it," I told her as Albedo stood up and continued to discharge bursts of dark clouds from her body. She came at me again. I dodged her horizontal slash, this time, instead of parrying. Each time we clash blades, Raijin generates a burst of electricity that damages her. Although she boasts the highest defenses among Nazarick's floor guardians, Albedo has no healing skills. I don't want to kill her, so causing minimal damage should be my priority.

"Die!" she said, slamming her axe to the ground. The impact released with a massive blast of dark energy that flung me back further than I wanted.

My hp instantly dropped to zero, but was instantly refilled to half as I automatically entered the Oni Awakening transformation. Blue spectral armor donned my body as I reverted to oni form with longer white hair than usual; it levitated behind my head, as if submerged in water, and was coated by a mystical blue aura. Dark blue steel-like skin formed over my flesh, acting as another layer of armor. I could feel my body healing through the transformation and should be up to full health in a few seconds.

I should be lucky, though, since everything else in a 50-meter radius was obliterated except for Aura and Shalltear. I tried to use my spell again to pull Aura and Shalltear from the blast, as well, but Death Grip is an aimed skill. Being flung so far and too fast, I couldn't get a good lock on them. The three of us were further separated, but that's fine. Albedo is coming after me, anyway. I sidestepped an overhead swing from her as I jumped towards the two women, readying myself for combat.

That axe of hers, the Ginnungagap, is dangerous. As I recall, its auto attacks weren't meant for single-target combat, but it more than makes up for it in wide spread attacks, dealing large AoE damage. But appropriate high-tier defensive spells make it survivable. It was given to her by that tentacle bastard, Tabula, who snuck it out of the world-item vault, and gave it to her. He also gave her the armor she's wearing. I was against her having such equipment, but Momonga let it go. I guess neither of us expected being thrust into a world where those bad decisions will bite us in the ass.

"I'll hold her here. You two, get Momonga! He's just behind that small forest where you attacked me and my servants!" I said, my awakened oni power pouring into my katana, strengthening it.

Albedo charged forward and struck hard from the side. I parried reflexively, then grunted at her sheer explosion of strength. I stood my ground, but that was wasted effort as her strike began to push me back. I clenched the ground with my feet and attempted to overpower her, but it was like I was walking one step forward and two steps back. Even with Oni Awakening, she still edges me out in brute force. Lightning shot from Raijin, into her system, at the point of impact. This time, however, the lightning was diverted into the outer layer of her black chest plate.

An electric jolt buzzed against Albedo's chest plate. I clicked my tongue in my mouth, forgetting about Albedo's damage-transferring ability, from herself to her armor.

Normally, magic punches straight through armor; magic is deflected by magic, and physical armor protects against physical damage. Albedo has an ability, however, that pairs well with the armor she's wearing. She can redirect any damage she takes into any armor she's wearing. With Hermes Trismegistus being a set of divine-tier equipment, it confers an enormous total amount of physical defense. While plate armor is no good against magic, Albedo is one of the few who can ignore this combat rule. And she can transfer a lot of damage to the armor before it breaks down, making Albedo the perfect tank for any situation.

In PvP, I never did like fighting tanks. They didn't do too much damage, but they have a plethora of crowd control skills, a lot of hp, and a lot of damage mitigation for both physical and magical attacks. They are perfect flag carriers for capture-the-flag-type battles and can keep other enemy players busy long enough for allies to do their job uninterrupted.

The two floor guardians knelt in front of me again, instead of leaving immediately.

"Lord, please forgive us for harming you, one of the great ones!" said Aura, her eyes to the ground. "If you find it fit to punish us for-"

"Later! Right now, get Momonga! There's a group of humans with him; leave them out of it. Stun them, keep them asleep, or something, but I don't want them harmed!" I said back-flipping in order to avoid another heavy swing.

Aura and Shalltear left quickly, leaving me alone with the possessed succubus who was fuming dark clouds like she was made from the stuff. But even with Momonga here, what can he do to remove this wickedness from Albedo? I'm sure we can kill her, thus leaving the spirit without a host to feed on, but I'd rather exhaust every possible option before we reach that conclusion. Albedo was just at the wrong place and time to have been taken over by this thing – she's collateral damage. And even if the darkness leaves her, unless it's completely vanquished, it'll just seek another host.

In that case, killing Albedo will have been for naught.

So how do I destroy it for good, then? I forced it out of my body by facing my inner grief and coming to terms with it, then accepting it as part of my life and forgiving myself for it. I thought of Haruyama as Albedo and I exchanged another flurry of attacks. She said a godsword is supposed to be the ultimate weapon of a god, but is that supposed to mean something to me if I'm not a god? There's also the fact that I wasn't immediately affected that dark freak when I contracted it, while Albedo instantly lost her mind when she was possessed.

The darkness said Raijin has been fighting it from the start, and she said she would protect me, no matter what. There are only questions in my head, now. How long have I had it for? Assuming I've had it for a considerable period of time, what is it about having a godsword that's allowed me to evade losing myself for so long? What did Raijin do to slow the rate of it eating me from the inside?

Damn it, I wish I could talk to her and extract more information. But she said we can't directly speak because I'm not a god. I'll need to have Momonga tank her for a bit while I find a way to speak to Raijin. There's always the off-chance Albedo is still in there somewhere. Maybe fighting against her love will cause her to fight off the malevolence herself. However, from personal experience, that abyss cloud is no pushover. I'm not sure I would have been able to expel it from me without Raijin.

I sure hope they get here fast, though. I don't know how long I can keep avoiding her attacks. I'm technically soloing a raid boss, right now, and she's extra pissed off with a side order of evil empowering her attacks. My agility stat is higher than hers, but she's not sluggish in physical combat like Momonga is. A few clean attacks will put me on my knees if I'm not careful. It's a good thing my oni ring is still on, though. I don't think I'd be able to concentrate finding it from my pouch with all this dangerous combat going on.

"Physical Art: Mortal Blow!" she said, her axe ferociously glowing blood-red. Steel chains wrapped around us both, preventing nimble movement or dodging.

I raised my sword to parry, on reflex.

Technically, that's the wrong thing to do, but it's the best way for me to survive this brutal attack. Mortal Blow is an immensely powerful single-target attack that acts differently depending on how it's taken. Taking it unprotected, odd as it sounds, is the best way to handle it. Normally, only tanks or other jobs with high hp and physical damage mitigation can do this without dying. Taking the damage that way will negate all of its other secondary effects and simply take a chunk out of the target's health, which can be easily mended by a healer.

Dodging is impossible due to the steel chains that came with the attack, locking the user and the target in place until the effect ends.

With my low defenses, I can't sustain an attack like that, head-on, without being blown to bits of Kaiserius confetti. My oni ring already activated, and the death-cheating ability has a ten-minute cooldown. Parrying or blocking is the bad way of avoiding the attack. Sixty percent of the target's health is dealt as instant damage. Because of Oni Awakening, that instant damage is almost halved, but another sixty percent of total health is dished out as bleed damage over ten seconds. The bleed damage cannot be resisted at all.

While the bleed effect is active, all healing spells received is nullified. In short, anyone who parries or blocks this attack will die… except for those with enough hp and mitigation to handle the damage.

In my case, my self-regeneration is not considered magic, since it doesn't drain my mp. Because of this, along with Oni Awakening's effect of reducing damage intake, which affects Mortal Blow's burst damage, I will survive the attack with health to spare. There's also the nasty guard-pierce mechanic the skill has upon making contact with a weapon or shield from the target. This affects any party member behind the target causing, them to take damage as well.

Finally, the third effect is literally punting the target about sixty meters from where they stand and gaining a temporary stun debuff as soon as the target reaches their destination. This mechanic made it difficult for healers to continue healing the tank as they have to cover a distance of over a hundred feet in a short amount of time. Albedo can quickly cover this ground as her wings propel her at a rate that is triple the speed of anyone using flight magic.

I thought about summoning my oni, and have them enter Oni Awakening to deal large bursts of damage, but that may not be the best idea.

Naturally, the raid party's DPS members would be behind the target, attacking like no tomorrow, but not against Albedo; anyone behind her is periodically blown back by her powerful wings, pushing them about five meters away while inflicting moderate damage. Even with the self-healing of my oni minions, and the large damage reduction granted by their transformation, they would not survive long against attacks made by a level 100 raid boss.

I'd simply be summoning them to their deaths.

Standing at her sides confers the same effect as being behind her, so that wouldn't work either. That's why the optimum method of fighting Albedo is staying at her face, but even that has its own issues due to her world item, the Ginnungagap. Among its many destructive properties, it has a dangerous ability that can destroy anything within a fifty-meter radius and deals extra damage to targets in front of her. While this is on cooldown, Albedo will periodically use Mortal Blow.

Taking it unguarded will knock me out in one shot with tons of overkill damage. Blocking it will ensure my survival, but will kill my oni if they're behind me because of the guard-pierce effect.

They might survive with Oni Awakening active, but what happens when that fades? They won't survive another.

Shizuki can heal them, but his job class is not a specialized healer – he leans more towards dealing damage. He has healing spells, but they're not very strong. Even if he used them to keep his colleagues alive, Shizuko and Shizuku don't have the hp or physical mitigation to survive the guard-pierce damage – they'd be killed in one hit, from full hp. Shizuki would survive, but there's no point keeping him around if all he'll be doing is healing himself to full until the next use of Mortal Blow, just so he doesn't explode. If his self-healing was as strong as mine, he might have a chance.

Although Ginnungagap's ability was just used, a little while ago, the cooldown isn't long and can be used again soon. This attack is effectively a tank buster with the potential of knocking out even a heavily armored player in one shot. The damage can be reduced based on how many people it affects, but it cannot be mitigated at all and will pierce through all forms of defenses, if it's taken by only one person. If the tank takes it, alone, they will die no matter how much protection they raise, even at full health with all the shields a shrine priest has in their arsenal.

Another trick to surviving is that the party has to consist of some high-armored members.

Ginnungagap's ability can be partially mitigated through armor if enough people take the attack. Suffice it to say that a raid party of 19 magic casters plus a tank will explode, as opposed to a raid party consisting of heavy bruisers, plus a tank. Having bruisers will allow those with less physical mitigation to survive the attack. And it can't be avoided either, since it's an instant attack, thus no casting time or channeling period. Casters with teleport or flight magic will not be able to flee far enough, either. Once the party takes the hit, AoE healing is a must due to the massive burst damage plus bleed damage affected targets sustain.

With her incredibly powerful weapon, sturdy-as-hell armor, the ability to transfer all damage she takes to her armor, and her innately high damage mitigation stats, Albedo is an immovable fortress that requires finesse, precision, and skill in order to subdue.

When her axe hit my sword, I felt an invisible force slash me up as I was flung almost 200 feet from where I stood. Before crashing through several trees and boulders, I raised the Dark Steel Citadel spell, increasing my physical defense to better handle the damage taken from the surrounding obstacles. I would have flown a bit farther, had it not been for something that caught me and stopped my momentum. I opened my eyes to see Momonga's armored form. He set me down, to the side as I felt my body healing through the severe damage I just sustained.

He had his swords drawn, and Aura and Shalltear were nearby, on their knees.

"Kaiserius, is it truly you?" he asked me. The two floor guardians must have told him. Narberal's hands went to her mouth.

"Yup- ow…!" I groaned in pain, grimacing as I cracked my back. My transformation faded while being punted by Albedo's attack. I placed a hand on the left of my ribs. Oh god, I think I pulled my spleen. I'd be in worse shape now, had it not been for my strong self-healing. "Sorry I didn't tell you earlier, I was waiting for a dramatic opportunity but now is as good a time as any. Oh, and sorry for leaving the guild so abruptly. I can understand if you're pissed at me."

"I'm not. I'm just glad to have you around," he said. I looked to him as he stepped forward, swords and all. That was quick. What the heck was I so scared about? If I had known I'd be forgiven so easily, I'd have just told him, straight up, from the start. I mentally slapped myself. I put me through unnecessary guilt and anguish that could have been avoided from the beginning.

"By the way, Narberal, I forgive you for ratting me out to Albedo," I said, limping to her as I embraced her fully. Hot tears fell from her eyes, to my neck as she wept. I patted her on the head as Momonga turned to us.

"She did what?"

"Forget about it. Clean slate," I replied, taking her by the shoulders and pulled away as I kissed her forehead.

I turned around as Albedo arrived, from the air, in a thunderous stomp that quaked the earth. Nfirea and the others had already been awoken, but maybe this could be a blessing in disguise. It might be a pain to try and protect them if Albedo uses Ginnungagap's AoE attack again. Assuming them to be around level five or under, they'd be obliterated quickly, even if the rest of us soak in some damage.

"Albedo, what is the meaning of this?!" Momonga shouted, but it fell on deaf ears as the possessed succubus rushed at him. He blocked with both swords but was gradually being pushed back. I struck her from behind, causing lightning to surge through her body. Albedo shouted in pain as I kicked her away from Momonga.

"Whoa, what's with that crazy chick?!" said Lukeluther, drawing a bow and arrow. He found his arms trembling. The others were shaking, in fear, too, as they should.

"Narberal, take them away and protect them with your life. Aura, create a perimeter around us, a hundred meters, or so, and make sure we're not interrupted. Shalltear, stay with us and enter Valkyrie form. I need you to tank Albedo," I said, issuing out orders. The three women got to their jobs without hesitation. "And I know I'm no longer a member of the guild, and you may not see me as a Supreme Being anymore but-"

"Nonsense, Lord Kaiserius," said Narberal, wiping some tears away as she helped Ninya up, who had fallen to the ground from Albedo's ground-shaking arrival. "Guild member or not, you will always be a Supreme Being in my eyes, as well as my revered co-creator."

"I can say it no better myself, master," said Shalltear, Aura nodded as well before departing. The vampire's body let out a white light as her outfit was replaced with a crimson dressing of full-body armor with white wings, along with the blood-sucking divine-tier lance, in hand, that Peroroncino gave her.

"What the hell is going on here?" asked Peter, sword and shield in hand. Too bad he won't be needing them.

"It will be explained another time. For now, we must flee and leave this to Shalltear and the masters," said Narberal, taking Peter by the shoulder as she led the rest to safety.

"Lord Kaiserius, please allow me to put down this gorilla for good as an apology for hurting you," she said. I shook my head. Albedo glared at me, baring her fangs. Her skin was also starting to peel. The spirit must be devouring her little by little, from the inside.

"No, I don't want her killed. I just need that evil spirit, she's spewing out, to be extracted," I said. "Momonga you may want to switch to your magic caster form while Shalltear holds her down. The darkness was inside me, earlier, but I was able to remove it. Problem is, I don't know how I did it. What I do know is that it feeds on negative emotions. Mine was the regret I felt when I left Ainz Ooal Gown. For Albedo, it's the anger she feels on the guild members who left Momonga alone."

"What a repulsive entity," said the armored warrior. "But I can't switch out of this armor right now. Nfirea and the Swords of Darkness are probably watching this fight, and I don't want to reveal that side of me yet."

"Suit yourself. But you won't be fighting at your full potential, and that worries me."

"That's good to know, Kaiserius, but I will be fine."

Shalltear engaged Albedo as we finished speaking. During a clash of weapons, Albedo reeled one arm back and drilled it into Shalltear's gut. The vampire coughed blood out of her mouth as her body was propelled upward. Albedo smashed her elbow into Shalltear's back, slamming her hard on the ground, and raised her axe to cleave the vampire in two. Shalltear kicked off of her, then brandished her large vampire wings and flapped them, pushing herself forward a few meters. She stood, in pain, and placed a hand on her stomach, coughing to catch her breath.

"Albedo is so much stronger than I remember. Is it the monster inside her that grants her so much power?" she asked, one eye closed as she panted and used her regeneration skill to close her wound and restore her hp.

"Yeah. Without it, I was able to go head to head against her, but it does make her strong. Her brute strength was enough to overwhelm me, even during Oni Awakening," I said. Then again, I wasn't fully paying attention when she punted me with Mortal Blow. "If you look closely, her skin is also peeling and vaporizing against the wind. The darkness is eating her from the inside. If it isn't extracted soon, it will kill Albedo from the inside."

"Then whatever you're going to do, do it fast. Shalltear and I will hold her for as long as we can," said Momonga as Shalltear rushed at her opponent once more.

"Snap out of it, you wide-mouthed gorilla! Don't make me kill you!" the vampire shouted in a power struggle. Momonga pressed both swords together and swung at Albedo's side, knocking her off balance. A chip was made on one of his swords; the other one cracked a bit, evidencing the incredible sturdiness of Albedo's divine-tier armor.

I closed my eyes, sat down, cross-legged, and held my sword close. I'm not really sure of what I'm doing, but I saw this on TV, once, when a hero was trying to commune with an inanimate object. I pushed all away all matters going on and focused on calling the name of my sword. I must look like an idiot, doing this. A minute later, Raijin unsheathed itself from my grasp, springing upward as I heard a clash of steel in front of me.

"Hey, I'm trying to talk to you, stupid swo- oh," I said, seeing Albedo in front of me, trying to split Raijin in half instead of me. I could feel the katana pulsing a strange energy that seemed to wash over me. It wasn't particularly empowering, or anything of the sort. It was more like the sword something was trying to reach out to me as I felt a hand tug at my arm. I grabbed it and rolled to the side, avoiding an earth-shattering ground smash by Ginnungagap. Momonga and Shalltear were on the ground, attempting to stand.

"Lord Ainz, are you all right?!" Shalltear darted to her felled master. I raised a brow, hearing that. Ainz? As in the first word of our guild name? Did he change his name? I'll have to inquire about that later. Albedo let out a roar and came at me. She isn't wasting any time trying to kill me, and it really does look like she has no interest in the other two. It's the evil within that must be trying to finish what it started when it tried to devour my soul. I swung Raijin to the side and strapped its sheath on my belt.

"Fine, commando!" I said, as we blurred from where we stood and met with clashed blades, exchanging a flurry of slashes as we took to the sky and pushed off of each other. I flew at her, my godsword crackling with divine thunder. Albedo struck overhead. I swerved to cut into her waist, but she met my steel with hers, sending me flying back towards Narberal and the others. I broke my fall by blasting a ball of flame behind and thrust towards the succubus again.

"Physical Art: Mortal B-"

"Ryuenjin!" I interrupted her attack with a powerful uppercut to fling the axe away and swung a second overhead swing at her.

Intense, red-orange, flames engulfed my sword, searing into Albedo's armor. Raijin proceeded into letting out another shock burst, electrocuting the darkened warrior as she fell from the sky. I sped up her fall with a kick to the stomach. As she neared the ground, Momonga intercepted her and slashed hard at her side, driving her to the opposite side of her landing destination. Albedo's body skid on the ground, but stood up soon after as I landed beside the guild leader.

"For the record, I blame you for letting her keep that axe and armor of hers," I said, taking a pot-shot at my friend. He merely scoffed.

"Don't tell me you aren't enjoying this challenge."

"Only a little," I said as Shalltear made her way to us and smiled.

"To see my two beloved lords having fun in the heat of battle is truly a wonderful sight. If only Albedo could share in this glorious feeling," she said, turning to our opponent. "It seems that force will not work against her. Any suggestions, masters?"

Momonga glanced to me.

"Kaiserius, you said this parasite is inside her, correct?" he asked. I nodded at that. "Well, if we can't get it out of her from the outside, we'll have to travel inside."

"Blood Bond…" said Shalltear in realization. Momonga nodded. "Yes, yes, that could work."

"Excuse me?" I asked. The vampire stepped in front of me.

"Lord Peroroncino equipped me with an ability that can share the damage I take with that of my target, but it has a secondary effect," she said. "I can also use it to act as a physical conduit between two other people, binding our souls together for as long as the spell lasts. We can use it to enter Albedo's soul and deal with problem directly. But whatever happens inside there happens to our physical bodies as well."

"Yes," said Momonga. "The affected party falls into a state of slumber, during this effect of Blood Bond. I've never seen this part of it used outside of YGGDRASIL, so I'm rather curious myself. I will remain outside to watch over your physical bodies and protect you, and will break the spell if your bodies become too badly damaged from any danger that happens inside. Speaking of danger…"

Momonga lunged forward to intercept Albedo's attack, who came at us during our strategy planning. Underhanded, but totally faultless on her part. Online games don't have a pause button, and neither does real life. Momonga plunged his swords on the ground, reached out to grab Albedo's blade-arm, and slugged her hard, across the face, with his other hand. I flinched at the sound of bone cracking against heavy metal. That punch would have separated anyone else's head from their shoulders.

Albedo fell on the ground. Momonga kept her pinned down by pressing his hands against her flailing arms, and her legs with his feet. Shalltear ran to her head and knelt on the ground as she pierced the side of the woman's neck with her sharpened gauntlet, drawing blood.

"I need your hand, Lord Kaiserius, hurry!" she whipped her head to me. I did as she said, making my way to her with a stretched hand. The vampire penetrated my flesh with her finger and kept it in there to prevent the wound from closing. She closed her eyes, her body emitting a crimson aura. "Blood Bond!"

I felt my eyes closing as I fell to my knees. The next thing I saw was a world covered in shifting clouds of darkness, overwhelming any bit of light. Shalltear was beside me, surveying our surroundings as well. Left, right, up, and down, everything was filled with enmity. I raised my sword in the air as it released jolts of electricity that struck the shifting black molds that gathered around us, pushing them back. Shalltear watched as the floor beneath us exposed a pure white color.

"My lord, your blade is-"

"Yeah, it has the power to fight evil, but not completely destroy it," I said, glancing to the side as a glowing white orb appeared from nothing. "Raijin, I'm assuming that's you?"

Shalltear looked around, but it didn't seem like she could see the hovering light beside me.

" _Only you can see me, Kaiserius,"_ said the female voice of Haruyama. I placed a comforting hand on Shalltear's shoulder, then patted the top of her head. The vampire girl giggled. _"So this is Albedo's subconscious, hmm? There's so much pain, so much suffering. I can hear her screaming in agony. She was awake through this entire ordeal and must have witnessed herself attacking Momonga, the one she claims as her loved one."_

"I can hear someone else speaking, but I see no one else except Lord Kaiserius and myself," Shalltear muttered, looking around for the source of the other voice. Suddenly, some of the darkness around sprang at us in the form of various weapons. Both of us readied ourselves for combat, intercepting the shadowed weapons as they came.

"Bulwark of Jotunheim," I spoke under my breath and slammed the floor with my hand as a globe of winter-frost surrounded us.

The ice barricade is a ninth-tier spell that acts as an impenetrable zone of frost magic, repelling any and all forms of non-melee damage until it breaks down. The shadow weapons came at us but were deflected by the barrier. Each collision created a small crack on the barrier. By the nature of their attacks, melee weapons that are being hurled at us through unknown means, this particular assault falls well within the area of ranged damage, allowing the Bulwark to repel them.

The animosity here is stronger than I thought, but that's to be expected since we're at the heart of all this.

"So how do we get rid of this and save Albedo?" I asked the glowing spirit.

" _The same way you did, I suppose,"_ she said. _"Albedo must accept her grief and overcome it. Momonga forgave you for abruptly leaving the guild. In fact, he's happy that you're by his side again, so that should be enough for her to move on."_

" _Painful emotions, created by the host, is what this monster feeds upon. The emotions are also part of the host. Albedo's subconscious split herself from the painful feelings, it's too much to bear otherwise. It's likely to have been developed early, but her fealty and loyalty to the Supreme Beings overrode this emotion and kept it suppressed. What this wretched creature does is bring negative emotions to the surface, causing it to overtake the mind of the host."_

" _Right now, Albedo is greatly suffering from this pain she tore from herself, much as you did. Because it festered deep inside, she never learned how to deal with it and get past it."_

"Yeah; I cast aside my guilt so I wouldn't feel it as much," I said in understanding. "It brought up that guilt slowly, and I felt it more and more. But, and I've been meaning to ask this, why was I not affected immediately after the darkness got to me? It said you were fighting it from the start."

" _Yes. All godswords have the power to fight evil, but there's only one that can purify it and drive it away for good,"_ she said. Those words reminded me of something.

"The power to drive away evil… Bishamon…" I muttered, recalling its flavor text when I first saw it in YGGDRASIL. Raijin quickly hovered in front of me.

" _How do you know that name?"_ she questioned me suddenly.

"I got it from that solo quest, over a month ago. You were there, you would have seen me pick it up," I told her.

" _It didn't seem that important. I took a nap after you beat the demon general,"_ she said. _"Back on track, Bishamon is the godsword of purification, and is one of the three most powerful weapons in creation. If you have it, why have I never seen you use it?"_

"Would it help in this situation?"

" _I don't know, maybe?!"_ Raijin shouted in my ear. My head reeled back in surprise. _"I only know how to fight the malevolence. If there's a way to destroy it completely, Bishamon would be able to do it!"_

As the barrage of bladed dark weapons continued on my barrier, eventually breaking altogether, Shalltear summoned her dark household to intercept the attacks while she took on the ones they couldn't.

A minute later, the vampire fell to where I stood, her armor partially torn, blood seeping from her mouth, and her household completely obliterated. One of the shadowed spears was plunged through her shoulder, and two more through both thigs. She snapped half of them off, pulled out the rest, and used her regeneration skill to heal herself. I saw her attacking the weapons earlier, with her Spuit Lance. Doing so should have healed some of her hp, but I don't think the weapons have any life energy of their own that she can siphon off of. I grabbed the tip of her lance and jabbed it at my gut, creating a wound.

Her lance drew some of my hp, healing herself in the process and closing the wound on her shoulder. Her regeneration skill took care of her other wounds. I was about to stab myself again, in case she was still in pain, when she resisted and pulled her lance back.

"Master, why?!" Shalltear spouted as my wound healed quickly. "Please, never do that again! I cannot bear to harm one of Nazarick's blessed creators, even if it's for my own well-being!"

"It's all right, my body mends itself on its own. Plus, you have limited uses of your regeneration skill. Save it for when you really need it," I told her as a large eye appeared before us. It was the same eye that I saw in my subconscious. Albedo came into sight as well, her arms bound behind her by black chains. She opened her eyes weakly, and met mine.

"L-Lord Kaiserius… please forgive me…" she said in pain. Some blood trickled down the side of her lips. I leaped at the eye, sword in hand. It formed a giant fist and shot it forward. I struck the black fist, but heard my sword clanging with an object that sounded like steel. Raijin shot a burst of lightning at the enclosed hand, causing it to wobble like jelly, allowing me to cut through it.

" _The godsword is a weapon of divinity that can cut through evil as long as it's wielded by its master. But unless we can destroy it, this retaliation gets us nowhere,"_ she said as the halved fist reformed quickly and pressed on the attack.

Shalltear brought her arms forward and caught the fist in place as I ran along its arm. When I reached the eye, I sliced the chains that bound Albedo. I was about to grab her when the chains reattached. Her body convulsed uncontrollably as the darkness entered her body. She reeled her leg back and kicked me down, back to where Shalltear stood. I grabbed the vampire and leaped back, saving the her from being crushed. Albedo's dark form descended, her axe in hand and ready to fight. Shalltear stood and prepared herself as well. Albedo opened her mouth to speak, but it wasn't her voice that came out.

 **Fool, you cannot stop me. You held some power in your subconscious, but not here. This delicious body is mine. The way it squirms in miserable pain as I consume it from the inside, it's absolutely delectable** _._

"Stupid gorilla-mouth! Are you going to let this monster take you over? What kind of floor guardian leader are you?! Lord Ainz would be so disappointed, if he knew you let yourself be beaten by this!" she said. Albedo made no reply as she blurred to Shalltear. I got in her way, caught her arm, and drove my fist across her face, then slammed my elbow behind her neck. The woman fell to the floor, her body forcing itself to rise.

"I… I can't… control…" Albedo muttered as Shalltear and I jumped back. Raijin's spirit bubble shone brighter, hovering to me.

" _Unlike you, dweeb, Albedo doesn't possess a godsword, so she's fighting this all on her own. The fact that she's lasted this long is proof of her strong willpower. But she won't live past this evening if something isn't done to save her. You have to draw Bishamon, right now!"_ she said.

"I can't, I don't know how!" I said to her. I can imagine her deadpanning at my answer.

Albedo blurred to me and swung her axe. Shalltear got in front of me and blocked with her lance. I got behind Albedo and struck from the back, electrocuting her with Raijin's power. Four shadowed lances appeared around me and shot forth. I readied to protect myself, but they were aimed at Shalltear. I blurred to her and knocked three lances off with my sword, then kicked the fourth to away. Albedo let out a mighty roar, pushing us both away from each other. She ran to me, axe raised. As soon as she got within melee range, I swiped my blade towards her arm.

Albedo blurred to Shalltear, forcing me to miss, and rammed her knee into the girl's abdomen.

" _What do you mean you don't know how?!"_ Raijin shouted into my ear. I can feel her getting angrier as time passed. It's hard to blame her, though. I'm feeling pretty inadequate right now. _"You have the skill, don't you? It came with the sword, when you finished the quest! Just shout it out, or something. That's what you do with your other skills, right?"_

"It's not that easy. I shout the name because that's how anime characters do it to make their attacks sound cool and dramatic!" I said. I hope my reasoning doesn't make me sound like a complete dork. I wonder if she got that anime reference, though. "Anyway, I normally imagine how the skill is executed and my body just knows how to do it. With Oni Ascension, it's different."

A dark sword rose from the floor and shot at me. I raised my sword, parrying the attack, but it continued pressing forward, trying to best me in a power struggle.

"This is just a theory but, in YGGDRASIL, I used many of my spells dozens, if not hundreds of times on the way to level cap, including Oni Awakening. But I only recently got Oni Ascension. My avatar, Kaiserius, has never used it and, thus, the directions on how to activate it was never burned into his brain. Now that I'm my avatar, I mentally and physically know how to cast all the spells he has ever done. By that logic, since he has never used Oni Ascension, I don't know how to either," I said to my sword as I swiped the shadow weapon aside and burned it to smithereens with a seventh-tier fire ball spell.

I rushed in to help Shalltear, who was getting pummeled by Albedo and shadow hammers, when Raijin pulled me back.

" _I have no idea what you just said, but… ugh… fine, it can't be helped. What I'm about to do, you better make sure to remember it. It's so humiliating, a godsword begging to another,"_ she said. I cringed a bit, still having trouble accepting that I was being talked down to by a sword. But what did she mean begging? _"And let me be clear on this: although you are my master, you are not allowed to wield any other godsword but me unless certain circumstances deem it necessary, like this one."_

"That doesn't make sense. If I find another, should I not wield it to increase my power?" I asked. "I'm still new to this whole thing. So, is that a rule I'm supposed to follow?"

" _There is no such rule. Just promise me I will be your only godsword,"_ she said. It's hard to swear otherwise. I can only use Bishamon during Oni Ascension, so that already means it won't see frequent usage. And given how rare these things are, I doubt I'll be coming across another one any time soon. Raijin groaned through her spirit orb and levitated to my pouch. _"Bishamon, I beseech you! As lord of storms, I ask that you lend my master your power!"_

The malevolence above us parted ways, opening a path of extraordinary light to pierce into the abyss room. I raised my left arm over my head, turning away from the blinding light as something fell to my hand, which I reflexively held tightly. I noticed that even greater amounts of the shifting dark clouds around me started giving way, if only to not be near the object in my hand that discharged a powerful violet aura, like dancing flames that devoured even the dark atmosphere that clouded it.

The possessed Albedo kicked Shalltear to the floor and leaped back, examining her armored hands as her entire suit's protective nature began to erode. I can see Hermes Trismegistus entering a state of semi-transparency, then recalled Bishamon's effect that disables all bonuses and/or enchantments from armor. Albedo's suit is now nothing more than dead weight. Even Shalltear's Bloody Valkyrie armor was affected, losing any bonuses it had on her due to being near me. So Bishamon's effective radius affects allies too, huh? I'll have to keep that in mind.

My hand trembled as I held the sword, like I was carrying the weight of the world with one hand. I'm having a hard time keeping it from dropping. Images flashed in my eyes, through my mind. I saw people I've never met before, and each of them held the same godsword I now hold in my left hand. Were these previous wielders? Some of Bishamon's violet flame poured into me as information seemed to sink into my mind. It's a strange feeling, like my brain was eating food the way my mouth does. A few seconds later, I, somehow, knew how to transform.

I see, Bishamon taught me how to enter the transformation much like how a job-class trainer would teach players skills or abilities. The sword became lighter in my hand, but not light enough that would allow me to wield it properly in battle. I smiled a little. Talk about a dramatic scene where the hero is facing insurmountable odds and needs to pull off a miracle in order save the day and get the girl. I started to get a bit giddy.

This is one of those moments… one to remember.

"Oni Ascension!"


	7. Chapter 5A part 3

**Overlord Chapter 5 (part 3)**

* * *

My black equipment vanished in tiny particles of dark glimmers and was replaced with a fearsome black and red demon armor. My hair grew even longer than it does in Oni Awakening form, now reaching past my buttocks.

Black gauntlets, with three painted layers of crimson sides and edges, appeared along my forearms, leaving none of my newly coated dark-steel skin exposed. An almost unholy-like black torso-plate formed on me, encasing the front and back of my chest, waist, abdomen, and back. I watched as something similar happened to my legs and feet – a protruding spike grew out of both knees. It was unlike the Oni Awakening in which spectral armor appeared in front of the body, like a worn hologram. With Oni Ascension, my body physically took on the likeness of an ancient demon warrior.

The entire form felt more like my own body than a hologram of armor in front of me. All of it looked like synthetic flesh and hardened into an unbreakable material. A red orb materialized at the core of my torso, pulsing like a beating heart. Two more red orbs appeared at the opposite of both my palms, matching the heart-beat-like pace of the one on my chest. I look to the fiend ahead with a somewhat crimson-shaded vision, meaning my eyes have taken the form of a deep-red color.

Raijin suddenly burst forth with fantastic lightning energy, exploding with power like a rod of lightning that was coated with smaller sparks of booming thunder. The godsword erupted with a gigantic blast throughout the dark room.

" _Kaiserius… did you just… this power… it feels like you've ascended to godhood,"_ Raijin remarked.

" _Such is the power of this transformation – it allows an oni to temporarily embody all the power and authority of a god,"_ said another voice, male, and divine-sounding, like the voice of an entity older than time itself. Its ethereal tone filled the entire room. The voice, alone, caused the surrounding darkness to break away until more than half the room sparkled with a clean white light. I looked to the blade on my left hand.

" _It is good to meet you at last, my new master. I am the godsword of purification, Bishamon,"_ he said. _"I see you wield another of my kind; I am glad that it has found its way into the hands of a capable creature. But we will speak more in length, another time. For now, use my power to destroy this monster that you unleashed, when you lifted me from my pedestal. My previous master had not the necessary power to use me properly, and so could not vanquish the enemy. Instead, it was sealed beneath me."_

"So that's when it happened. Then this solo quest of mine isn't over yet, is it? Oh. My voice sounds cool, like a true demon monster," I said in a low, groaning tone. Bishamon let out an approving grunt. I crossed both swords in front of me, then swung them to the front and my sides, releasing two surges of white crescent waves that obliterated all the spirits of malice it came in contact with and near it. Albedo let out a piercing roar, like the shout of an animal who has nothing left to lose. Her voice was mixed with the creature inside her.

"Can you purify her, Bishamon?" I asked.

" _I can. Thrust me into her heart and I will quell the raging evil in her soul, such is my purpose as a divine blade that vanquishes evil. And do not worry for her life; I sense she is strong and should survive an attack from me if all I target is the corruption,"_ he said. Okay, good enough for me.

I blurred to her and parried her axe with Raijin so hard that the impact of blades created a powerful sonic boom that flung the axe from her grasp. The explosion of force made its way to my skin, but I felt no damage on my body due to this form's immunity to all forms of damage. Reeling my left arm back, I pierced straight through Albedo's useless armor and plunged the flaming godsword into the woman's heart, quickly and gradually burning the dark aura from her body, much like a hellfire bomb thrown on top of a small block of ice.

The monster inside screamed out loud, through Albedo's mouth; its rancid voice was rapidly clearing from her throat. The female warrior wailed on my body, even sending shadowed weapons my way, pointlessly. Suddenly, I noticed Bishamon starting to blimp out of existence. The same was happening to my arm, the rest of my body, and even Shalltear. Albedo pulled herself away when Bishamon disappeared from her chest.

"Lord, forgive me, I can no longer sustain the effects of Blood Bond!" said Shalltear, half of her body vanished. "We're being forced back outside."

"No! Isn't there any way to extend it? The purification isn't comp-"

"-lete!" I finished, finding myself outside with Bishamon on my right hand and Raijin on my left. Albedo's eyes shot open as her entire being exploded with malicious dark energy. I grabbed Shalltear and leaped back, using my transformed body to shield her from the radiating waves of power that pulsed from Albedo as she rose. Momon stood back, grabbed his large swords, and crossed them over his body to defend himself.

"Kaiserius, what happened?" he asked.

"Blood Bond's effects wore off. I had no idea it even had a duration," I said as Shalltear fell to one knee, panting hard.

"Forgive me, master," she said, catching her breath. "Blood Bond takes a toll on my mana reserves when used in that way. It also places a debuff on me that drastically decreases my combat stats, and enters a much longer cooldown that usual. I was careless; I was so excited to fight alongside my lords that I failed to mention Blood Bond's duration. Had you known that, you might have been able to finish your purification."

"Well, what's done is done," I said. "Shalltear, join Narberal and retreat from combat. Momonga and I will finish the rest."

"I… I cannot," said the vampire, struggling to stand. She pressed her lance to the ground and leaned on it. "As a guardian, I will not leave my masters to fight alone! It is my job to protect the Supreme Beings…!"

"Your dedication is truly inspiring, and you do your title proud, Shalltear. But you can hardly stand, so do as Kaiserius says and get out of here," said the armored hero as he engaged Albedo in combat. Reluctant as she was, Shalltear nodded and turned to flee, but stumbled after a single step. I carried wrapped my arms around her, blurred to Nfirea and the others, and put her down. The alchemist and adventurer party backed away at my monstrous form. Narberal knelt and lowered her head.

"Narberal, see to Shalltear's safety as well. Momon and I will finish the battle ourselves."

The battle mage shook her head in protest.

"Master, no! As your creation, I simply cannot abide by that. Let me follow you," she said, raising her head as her onyx eyes my blood-red ones.

"Not happening. Stay here and look after everyone. That's an order," I said, flying back to the scene of battle as I witnessed Albedo and Momonga trading blows.

" _The purification was interrupted,"_ said Bishamon _. "Forgive me, master, but there is no longer a way to spare the woman's life."_

I winced when he said that, remaining afloat.

" _The initial attack placed a heavy strain on her; I could feel her soul giving in from my power when I pierced her. As she is now, coupled with the fact that the darkness has already drained much of her strength, she does not have the life force to withstand another attack from a godsword that is wielded by one with the power of a god. If you were in mortal form, it is, perhaps, possible to try again due to your lack of strength. But, a godsword such as me, one of the three all-powerful blades, cannot be wielded by a mere god-descendant. Your current form is the only way for you to use me,"_ he said.

"So I have to kill her, is that what you're saying?" I growled, gritting my teeth.

" _It is,"_ he answered. I could feel Bishamon's despair when those words left him. Even godswords have emotions, and it seems even they can feel regret. _"And you must do it immediately. If you lose your form, you lose me as well. Oni Ascension cannot be used again for another half-day, as your soul requires that much time to recover from the strain of wielding god power as a mortal. By then, the darkness will have eaten its current host and will move on to its next victim."_

I gripped the hilts of both swords, frustrated at my lack of ability. If what Bishamon says is true, I'm currently too powerful for Albedo to handle my attacks. I can strike her down with this all-powerful blade, and the monster will cease to be, but she'll die in the process. I can kill her with Raijin, but the darkness escapes since she doesn't have the ability to destroy it. There really is only one option.

" _No, there is another way. Grant me usage of some of your powers, Bishamon,"_ said Raijin, pulsing a faint glow in my hand. _"A godsword can contain a small portion of another's abilities. A blade as important as yourself should only be brought forth during great emergencies. Otherwise, allow me to handle all other mundane tasks."_

Sure, she says that, but this brings me back to what she said earlier: I'm not allowed to wield another godsword but her. Though I'd like to know the reason for that, now isn't the time to inquire. After some debate, a portion of the divine blade's violet flame surrounded the thunder katana, then vanished. Once the blade disappeared from my hand, my Oni Ascension transformation left with it. I could feel Bishamon's power coursing through Raijin. It felt like the storms of raging thunder was mixing with a fire that consumes all.

But, oddly enough, I feel more than just power seeping into me, from my godsword. What is this feeling? Courage? A deeper sense of righteousness? Whatever it is, I'll ask about it later.

I darted below and struck Albedo from behind. With the absence of Bishamon's armor-corrosion effect, Hermes Trismegistus's sturdiness has returned, but that didn't matter. A bolt of mighty thunder struck from the sky, at the point of impact. Albedo transferred the damage to her armor. But even with the damage transfer, a small bit of black smoke was pulled from her body and evaporated in the wind through Raijin's new purification power. What I didn't expect, however, was the small chip of the dark steel falling from her shoulder.

Momonga tackled Albedo then slashed both his adamantine swords into her chest plate, shoving her backwards with a forceful blow.

"Did your sword always emit thunder magic that potent?" he asked.

"Nope, it's a new thing," I said, raising my sword overhead using a two-handed gatotsu stance. My legs spread wide with most of my weight falling to the back leg; the front foot was faced forward, to the black, fume-spouting, Albedo. "So, you excited? Just like old times, huh?"

"Excited? Sure, but I doubt we've ever two-manned a high-level raid boss before. It could prove to be great experience," he said, readying himself as well. "By the way, while I fought her, I've been trying to get through to her. My efforts fell in vain. It's as if she's become a mindless husk whose sole purpose is to cause mayhem. I'm not sure if there's any way to salvage her now. Much as I hate to say this, we may have to put her down by force."

"Is that you, throwing in the towel, I'm hearing? What kind of Supreme Beings would we be if we can't save our servants from a little wannabe evil? It's hard to find quality helpers, these days," I said. Momonga nodded with a grunt and took first charge.

I'm not giving up on you, Albedo. Just hold on.

Albedo let out a loud shriek and ran to him, axe ready to carve his black plate armor into tin foil. I blurred past him and smashed the stock of my hilt into Albedo's upper leg, just under the hip, where the armor was thinner than normal in order to not hinder movement. Focused on Momonga, she never saw me coming. The helmed warrior jabbed his right elbow into her gut, backhanded her face with the same arm, then slammed his fist into her chest with the other. Albedo stood her ground, stomped on the dirt patch below, and pressed forward with her axe raised into the air, bringing it down with titanic might.

"Die!" she yelled in a satanic, demon-possessed, voice.

The axe donned a black-flame semblance as it crashed on the ground, releasing an aggressive, area-wide explosion. I jumped close behind Momonga as we took the hit together. I bit my lip, fighting through the pain as my self-healing took care of my body. Momonga, however, has no such luck. I placed a hand on the back of his chest plate, coursing an eighth-tier healing spell through him. Originally, the healing spell came from my paladin job, but I mixed it with dark magic so as to coat its harmful effects against the undead.

I back-flipped about ten meters and sheathed my blade, as I bombarded Albedo with well-aimed thunder spells. Momonga caught one of the thunder bolts, into his sword, charging it with focused lightning, and slashed at Albedo's face, attempting to split her head in half. She pushed against the ground to avoid the attack, but Momonga's long reach managed to scratch her cheek while she was relocating the damage she took.

When she transferred the damage to her armor, a surface cut still appeared on her cheek, evidencing that she can only transfer one type of damage at a time. The lightning spell was absorbed into her armor, but the physical slash was taken head-on.

"Interesting," said Momonga, gripping his hilts tightly, noting Albedo's reaction to the damage inflicted upon her. "Who would have thought that you'd make a good support-mage, as well as a decent field-combat healer?"

"I try, but don't get used to it," I scoffed, seeing my hp restored to full via self-regen. "At the end of the day, my war wizard is a DPS-oriented job class. My healing spells aren't as potent as a specialized healer, so you'll still need to watch yourself. Once my mp runs dry, I can't heal you anymore."

 **Consume… des… destroy…**

Albedo roared into the dark sky.

We watched as her skin continued to peel from her face, assuming the rest was happening to the rest of her body. The dark spirit is still eating away at her – I have to finish her off soon, or else her death will mean nothing when the creature finishes her and seeks another host. Momonga and I continued our assault at her, with him as the tank and me as support bombardment and healing. When I struck her with Raijin, earlier, a small amount of the darkness seeped out of her and disappeared into the wind. It seems there's still a lot left, but I can feel her strength starting to wane.

Whether that's because the darkness is leaving her or more of her is being consumed from within, remains to be seen. Either way, it has to be me who attacks her with my sword. I clicked my tongue in my mouth, casting a dark rejuvenation spell on Momonga, whose hp dropped a bit when Ginnungagap managed to slash under his arm, where his armor was thin. My mp is just a little over half and is depleting fast with all the healing spells I'm giving my tank. I groaned and drew my sword, blurring in front of Momonga to intercept an overhead slash.

"Sorry, but we're going to have to switch!" I said, buckling under the sheer difference in strength between me and the possessed Albedo. "I have to be the one to attack her with my sword, in order to purify her soul. If you do it, you'll just kill her and set the evil spirit free."

Momonga jumped back as I dropped my guard and swerved to her side, causing her to stumble forward as I slashed the side of her armor, twice, and blasted a bolt of lightning at her, from my palm. A little more of the wicked black smoke left her as she let out an ear-splitting cry. At first, her voice was coated with the hideous sound of the monster's wretched voice. A few seconds later, however, even more of the corruption trailed out of her mouth as her own voice overpowered the shroud of her tenant's hold on her.

"Please… please… kill me!" Albedo managed to utter as another blotch of the black clouds left her. But instead of vanishing, it seemed to circle around her body. The power Raijin assimilated from Bishamon is definitely working into the wickedness inside her. Albedo coughed some blood out. Some of it even trickled down her eyes. She eyed me, weakly. "I don't… I don't want… this…"

"Albedo, hold on!" I said, charging at her as I swung at the black clouds that hovered over her. I managed to slice some, but the rest returned into her mouth, empowering her once more. This time, however, it wasn't as potent. The black aura around her was weak, hardly covering even half of her body. She raised her axe with one trembling hand, then gripped her own wrist before the world item could come crashing down again, in front of me. The woman struggled hard to contain herself.

"Fight it, Albedo! As your master, I order you to defeat this thing inside you!" Momonga barked at her.

"L… L-Lord… it's so… it's so strong…!" she said. I bit my lip and shot a healing spell at her, closing some of her wounds. Momonga leaped to her and swung both claymores at her chest plate, diagonally, hacking off a good several inches of the black steel armor from the waist area. I stabbed my sword through the exposed part of the woman's body, expelling a greater portion of the darkness. I pulled out quickly, then tossed another healing spell to close the wound I just made.

I was about to stab her again when it took over its host again and released a powerful blast that sent both of us back. The blast was sent in waves, further pushing us away from Albedo until the pulsing stopped and we were a good twelve meters away. It didn't do any damage, but it was successful in creating distance between us. Albedo fell to one knee, panting heavily. She dropped the black bardiche and held herself tightly, quivering as she spat more blood to the ground. I gritted my teeth.

"I don't understand, but why does she keep spitting blood out? Are my healing spells not working?" I asked to no one in particular.

"No, it's definitely working," said Momonga, standing up straight as he put away his dual claymores. "I checked her hp bar when you healed her, and she did recover. But she's losing it faster and faster as the malevolent spirit devours her. Perhaps it's possible to save her, if we continue what we're doing. But there wouldn't be much of her will remaining. She will be a shell of her former self, with very little ability to function."

"Damn it…" I muttered, gripping my godsword so hard my hand was quaking. Momonga approached me and placed a hand on mine, slowing the tremble to an eventual stop.

"We are powerful, Kaiserius, but we are not deities. There are some things we simply cannot do, and we must accept it as is. Come, let us end her suffering. Albedo is owed that much for her services as leader of the floor guardians and stalwart protector of the Great Tomb of Nazarick," he said, laying his hand off as we glanced to the dying woman, who vomited even more blood and fell to her shoulder. We made our way to her; she looked up at us. Momonga helped her up, whose legs wobbled and appeared to lack the strength to keep herself standing.

"M… My… love," she said, placing a shaking hand onto Momonga's black gauntlet that supported her underarm. "M… eet… in… n… next… life…"

Almost immediately, that arm fell limp as some of the darkness tried to surge back into her body. However, it didn't seem like there are was much left to control. I can almost see her life force draining from her eyes. Her arm budged, as if she was trying to pick it up, but she failed as more blood seeped out of her lips. Momonga lifted the arm. Albedo used what remained of her strength and willpower to guide it to my right hand, which held my godsword.

"Beg… of you… Lo… Lord. I don't… want to… hurt… Supr… eings…" she said, a slight smile featuring on her face.

I closed my eyes and turned away as I thrusted my blade into her waist. I pressed the hilt down so the tip would tilt up and pierce her heart, then went out the other end. Crimson-red blood splattered onto her beautiful jet-black hair, oozing down the strands. What remained of the darkness left through her mouth and dissipated into nothingness. I pulled my sword out as its electric-blue light burned the succubus's blood from the blade, leaving it immaculate. I returned my katana to its sheath.

Momonga slid his hand down her face, closing her eyelids, but her smile remained.

"Forgive me, Momonga, it was the only way," I told him, lowering my head to the floor, deeply anguished.

"There is nothing to forgive, my friend. You are not at fault," he assured me. I took a deep breath and opened my eyes about half way.

We stood together in silence, with Albedo's smiling corpse still in Momonga's arms. He raised a hand to the side of his head, ordering Narberal, Aura, and Shalltear to return. Either he has telepathic abilities, or he just used the whisper-message system. Since I doubt the former, it must be the latter. But how is that possible? The whisper-message function isn't a spell or anything, it's a feature available to all YGGDRASIL players, allowing us to speak to others from far distances. I'll have to ask him how to do it later.

Aura was the first to arrive, followed by Narberal, who was supporting an unarmored Shalltear by the arm and waist. The three women closed their eyes and bowed their heads at the sight before them, giving a moment of silence to their fallen comrade. I wonder if they thought it would end any other way. Peter and his team, along with Nfirea, approached us and laid eyes on the corpse in my arms. Momonga took her. They sighed a breath of relief.

"Oh good, she's dead. That chick was all sorts crazy," said Lukeluther. Narberal growled and drew her sword, spinning to the archer, ready to decapitate him. I blurred to them and caught the blade with two fingers. Lukeluther grunted, eyeing the steel weapon, a mere inch against his skin. I pressed the maid's sword down, then looked to her target.

"You probably shouldn't say things like that," I said, glancing at Albedo smiling face, then back at him. "She's not what you think, not bad, I mean. She was just caught in a mess I started, and died because of it."

"Oh. Sorry," he said, his head hanging low.

"Nabe," Momonga called. The woman turned to him. "Finish the quest without me, and Kai. Retrieve the reward, then return home immediately. If your escorts have questions about what took place today, sate their curiosities but do not reveal too much. I will leave it to your discretion on what you will say to them."

Shalltear's armor faded from her and was replaced with her usual full-body gothic dress. As Narberal bowed silently, I picked up Shalltear. The vampire blushed as I carried her, but said nothing.

"Wait, Mister Momon, what are you going to do?" asked Nfirea. "That woman in your arms, she was your friend, wasn't she? Are you going to bury her?"

"I… yes," he answered. "Forgive me for having to leave like this. It's very unprofessional."

"N-no, no, I understand. I'm sorry it ended this way. Go with my regards. I'll have Nabe return to you in no time," he said as he and the adventuring party left with Narberal.

He collected his horse, tied it on the wooden cart with all his herbs, and was gone within minutes. The last thing I heard from them was Dyne asking what happened to my oni minions. I'll have to remember to summon them again, later. I'm glad Shizuko is still at Carne Village. She would have only gotten in the way, in this fight, and probably perish needlessly.

Aura waved her hand in front of her, conjuring a black gate. We entered through it and arrived at the tenth floor of Nazarick, the throne room. Momonga dropped his black armor disguise and assumed his skeletal magic caster form; he looks the same as I remember, with all his entire set of divine-tier equipment. I'm quite jealous, since my armor is only of legendary quality. At least he doesn't have a talking, not to mention sentient, sword.

I surveyed the room. It looks about the same as I remember. The gilded throne, where the guild master sits, was still at the center-end of the room. The black spikes that looked more like obsidian dragon claws still held a metallized emblem of Ainz Ooal Gown, just behind the throne. Round-surfaced pedestals were layered at both sides, several feet away from the glorified chair. I shouldn't think of it like that; I'm almost sure it's a world item.

Five steps of stairs separated the surface where the throne was placed, and the dark magenta carpet that stretched all the way down from one side of the room to the other. Above the marbled floor were the dark magenta-colored flags that hung on the walls, signifying every single player character member of the guild. They each had their own symbols. As the fifteenth member of the guild, my flag, with the crest of a horned dragon's head on it, wasn't too far from the front. In fact, I can see it's still located at the left side of the hall, next to Blue Planet's member flag.

Enormous blue chandeliers hung from the ceiling, which reached very high up in the massive room. We even have tall pillars situated at along the sides of the hall, and even they didn't reach the ceiling's extraordinary height. Higher and higher up the hall, it began to get darker as the candles on the chandeliers, and torches on the walls, couldn't reach that high. It gave the illusion that there was no ceiling, that the tenth floor was infinite in height.

There was one major difference, one that I don't remember being present when I was last here. Piles and mountains of gold were littered all over the room. There were even rare items that laid on the floor, next to the YGGDRASIL currency. There are some items here, such as ceremonial weapons worth hundreds of thousands in YGGDRASIL gold. I recognize them from the treasury room. Mare suddenly appeared in a flash of white light, with several enormous stacks of gold that was being levitated through his use of magic.

He set them down, next to the other piles, and wiped some sweat from his head.

Some of the other floor guardians were present, minus Victim and Gargantua. There were other level 100 NPCs missing, such as Sebas, the head steward of the guild and leader of the Pleiades when Lastborn isn't around. The other Pleiades were here too, except Narberal of course. On that note, Solution is missing as well. I wonder where they went?

Being at the southern end of the room, none of them noticed our presences yet. Momonga hugged Albedo with one arm and dipped his hand into a pocket dimension, in the air. When he pulled it out, he was holding a golden ring with a red gem embedded into it, and an ordinary-looking silver ring. He gave them to me.

"Here, I believe these are yours. One of them is the ring you gave to me for safe keeping. You know, the one you won from that world event, about six months ago. You didn't know what to do with it, so you placed it in my care," he said, as I took the items and glanced at the gold one – the Ring of Ainz Ooal Gown. As for the second, I dropped it into my item pouch, deciding to deal with it another time.

"The guild ring… you know I can't wear this, since I'm not a member of the guild anymore," I said to him as a reminder, placing the item inside my pouch as well.

"We'll get that sorted out later. For now, there's something more pressing to attend to," he said as he made his way to the throne, following the long red carpet. I walked behind him. Shalltear and Aura hurriedly joined their colleagues, who stood at the right side of the carpet. The Pleiades were at the left. Upon the return of the two female floor guardians, all present NPCs turned to Momonga and bowed.

"I see, so this is why you gathered us here, my lord," said Demiurge, looking at the corpse in his master's arms. "Albedo, one of our mightiest, has fallen. Who did this, lord, that I may enact vengeance on that poor soul?"

"I don't know, Demiurge, do you really think you're capable of such a feat?" he asked as he teleported a few feet forward, in front of his throne, and set Albedo's corpse down.

Demiurge, whose attention was at Momonga and Albedo, suddenly turned his head, his crystalline eyes meeting mine and immediately dropped to one knee, followed by his colleagues.

"L-Lord Kaiserius!" he burst out. I approached Momonga's side, looking over the rest of our servants. The others gasped in delight. Aura and Shalltear could only smile. "When I saw Mare transferring gold and items from the treasury room to here, teleporting back and forth, he told me to gather the guardians and the Pleiades at the request of Lord Ainz. He also mentioned that our great lord had a pleasant surprise waiting for us. I thought it was Albedo's corpse, though I wondered how that could be pleasant, as she was a loyal servant of the guild. I never would have dreamed he meant the return of another Supreme Being!"

"Thanks for the warm greeting, Demiurge. And I'm sorry for leaving the guild abruptly. This time, I'm here to stay," I said to them. Momonga nodded, then ordered his servants to rise.

"It is no trouble at all, lord!" said Mare, beaming at me with his staff held closely to his chest. "Your departure was felt by everyone, but none of us will ever question the will of the Supreme Beings; that is absolute! We had faith that you would return someday, and you have."

"Perhaps, with time, the other lords will return as well," said Cocytus, expelling a breath of white smoke from his mouth. "But until then, we are grateful that Lord Ainz will not be alone in ruling us."

"Thank you, Mare, Cocytus," I said to them, as I looked to Momonga. "So, what are we doing here? And why did you have Mare teleport all this gold here?"

"We're going to revive Albedo. Many of our servants don't have a guild ring yet, but I still want them to witness this," he said. I narrowed my eyes. "I've been meaning to use up all this gold; it's useless in this world, due to their different usage of currency. Besides, revival magic doesn't work on NPCs; it only works on other players, so that makes my Wand of Revival useless. Nazarick's NPC corpses are immune to revival using my Shooting Star ring, leaving only one way to revive Albedo - the use of in-game gold."

"Fair point," I said, looking to the large piles of gold behind and around the gathered NPCs. "I contributed a lot of this gold, but I suppose I do hold some fault in this for letting the darkness possess Albedo."

"I as well, lord," Shalltear bowed her head in shame. "Had I not neglected to tell you of Blood Bond's duration, the outcome of all this may yet be different."

"True. But since we're both at fault, we'll raise our heads high and learn from this mistake," I told her as she looked up to me. "It takes 500 million gold to revive an NPC that has a total level of 100. We'll only be able to do this once, so I ask that the rest of you remain cautious in this world. Do whatever it takes to stay alive in battle, even if you must retreat. I mean it, don't die."

"Understood!" they all said. I looked to Momonga.

"All right, let's get this started," I said. The skeletal mage nodded and summoned the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown to his hand. He raised it over his head.

"Albedo, resurrect!"

The staff pulsed a red light, reaching the piles of gold in the throne room as they liquefied. I almost flinched at the sight, but knew it's for the best. The melted gold waved around like water in a running lake, for a few moments, before gathering together, around Albedo. A golden light wrapped around her, closing her wounds and bringing life back to her previously motionless body. I could see her hp bar, and it was refilling at an astronomical rate, until it was full. As the light faded, along with the gold, Albedo's helmless Hermes Trismegistus also disappeared, leaving her naked on the floor.

I covered my eyes partially, with one hand. Why the guild didn't revive her with at least her Virgin Snow dress on, is beyond me.

Momonga dipped his hand into a pocket universe again and emerged with a thick dark blanket. He threw it over Albedo, covering her from neck to ankle. I lowered my hand from my face as he cradled her body, supporting her head with his hand. The woman stirred awake as she was raised from the floor. She looked around the room, her eyes locking with mine first, then Momonga.

"Lord Kaiserius? Lord Ainz? My lords, what am I doing here? And why am I naked?" she asked. I let out a sigh of relief. Our hard-earned gold was all gone, but at least Albedo is alive and well. For a brief moment, I suddenly imagined Shalltear being the recently revived one and laying in front of us, naked with only a thick blanket to cover herself. Odd. Where did that thought come from?

I shrugged my shoulders. Oh well, it's probably nothing.

"Thank goodness. I'm sorry, Albedo, this was all because of my mistake," I said, causing the girl's cheeks to flush red. She shook her head. "We used the guild's funds to resurrect you, so you can continue serving and protecting Nazarick."

"Oh no… the fortune that was gathered by the combined efforts of the Supreme Beings, all of it was used to revive me?" she asked as Momonga put her on her feet. Albedo wrapped the blanket around her body, took a step back from us, then bowed. "I am not worthy of this kind gesture, my lords. I even caused harm to the Supreme Beings, thus violating my oath to protect them!"

"You did what?!" Demiurge angrily shouted at the woman. Albedo shrieked at his loud voice as he faced her with his fists clenched beside him. Momonga raised his palm to him, who backed away immediately and bowed to me. "Forgive me, my lord. I overreacted, but I cannot bear to let something like this slide."

"It's all right, just forget about it, Demiurge. Albedo was not at fault; she was under the control of a powerful creature, which was vanquished when Kaiserius purified it from her, killing her in the process," he said.

"I understand, lord, but something like this should not go unpunished. It is also a master's duty to discipline their servants," he said. Albedo lowered her head, then nodded as the other guardians began to berate her folly. Momonga and I backed away, watching the scene unfold before us. He sat on one of the stairs behind, and I stood beside him with my arms crossed against my chest. I imagined the silhouettes of my old friends in place of each floor guardian and Pleiades maid who stood in front of me.

"Kind of reminds you of the others, doesn't it?" I asked. Momonga nodded.

"Yes. These people are the creations of our old allies. They're like the children of those who made them."

"And now we're stuck babysitting them."

"Or they're babysitting us. Who can really tell?"

"By the way, I've been meaning to ask, why do they call you Ainz?"

"That's part of my plan to bring in the other guild members, in case they were transported here with me. It worked for you, didn't it?" he asked with a chuckle. I said nothing in reply, not verbal anyway. I only passed him a smirk and scoff. "I'd like it if you did the same, Kaiserius. Maybe some of the others will hear of this name and come searching for me."

"It'll take some getting used to, but I don't see the harm… Ainz," I said to him, resulting a nod. Shalltear noticed her masters withdrawn from the scene and turned to us. She gave us her hands, pulling us back into the fray.

"We await your orders, masters," she said with a smile. "Also, I recommend scolding Albedo mercilessly."

"I second that, don't go easy on this bonehead," said Aura.

"Agreed. Harsh words are the least she deserves at this point," said Cocytus, exhaling steam from his nostrils… wherever those nostrils might be.

"Perhaps add in some lashing or boiling water. She must accept whatever punishment the masters will dish out," said Demiurge. "The position of floor guardian leader comes with strict responsibilities, which she failed to adhere to."

"Please don't be too hard on her, lords," said Mare, lowering his face a bit. "That is, if you don't mind me saying."

It was then that Ainz let out a laugh that somewhat confused those present. I let out a laugh as well, did so in my mind.

"We deserve the scolding. While it's your job to protect us, Kaiserius and I, as well as the other Supreme Beings, see you all as our children. It's a parent's job to protect our own, and we failed in that," he said, glancing to the revived succubus. "You have nothing to be guilty of, Albedo. Always remember that."

"Um… if you say so, my lord," she said timidly. Ainz turned to the gothic-dressed vampire.

"Shalltear, escort Albedo to her room and get her dressed," he said, gaining a nod from her as he looked to me and brought up the Master Source panel. My brows raised at that. I had no idea it could be brought up since we're no longer in YGGDRASIL. But since elements from the game exist here, I see no reason as to why this should surprise me. He typed some keys into the panel as a green aura surrounded me. A voice, in my head, asked if I would like to join the Ainz Ooal Gown guild. Huh, that's a new feature. "And now for your triumphant return, should you accept it, of course."

"I think it's pretty obvious at this point, isn't it?" I asked, mentally speaking 'yes,' as the aura wrapped around my body. Energy flowed through me. I felt stronger and completely energized. It's the benefits of being in a guild, I assume. We didn't feel it in YGGDRASIL, but now that we're living as our in-game avatars, we feel all that they feel. In this case, the passive bonuses granted to guild members.

There are various passive bonuses granted to guild members – this feature was in the game, such as an increase to hp and mp stats. A golden ring appeared on my right index finger, the same one placed inside my pouch – the Ring of Ainz Ooal Gown, every member of the guild owns one. It allows us to freely teleport to any room within the Great Tomb of Nazarick, allowing for quick and easy transportation around the place. I took the ring off, along with my gloves, and removed the two rings there. I wore my gloves back on, then inserted the rings over the gloves, in the same fingers.

"All hail Lord Kaiserius!" said the NPCs, taking a knee as they shouted praise several times.

I felt like I was really back home, the place I belong. After being apart from this place for so long, it felt nice to be part of an establishment again, a family that takes care of its own. I wonder how things would have turned out if I hadn't left in the first place? I wouldn't own a supreme-level godsword, and a wickedly powerful upgrade to Oni Awakening. On the plus side, we'd still be 500 million useless YGGDRASIL gold richer, since Albedo wouldn't have had to be revived for my mistake.

I shook my head.

No, stop it. All is forgiven, and this is my clean slate. Momonga doesn't seem the least bit pissed off that some of the rare items in the treasury were liquidated into usable gold for Albedo's resurrection, and I shouldn't be either. Her death taught me something important – although I wield the weapon of a god, I'm still only mortal. I don't hold the power over life and death, but I do hold the power to affect everything and everyone around me with the decisions I make. I watched my servants continue to shout praises to my name. It brought a fragment of happiness into my heart.

It is my charge to protect these people, the ones left behind by my old friends. Without regrets weighing me down, I feel like I can actually live up to that obligation. Blue Planet, Nishikeinrai, Warrior Takemikazuchi, Yamaiko, Peroroncino, everyone… I promise to protect those you considered your pride and joy. I will guard them with my life, even against their wishes that it should be the other way around. A family protects each other; that's how we saw it, and that's the virtue I'll pass on to them. I consider myself too young to have children. But this feeling of warmth that they give me, as offspring would give to their parents…

It feels pretty damn good.

* * *

 _Chapter 5 part 3… holy mother of sin, this chapter took so long to write. This is actually the fourth version of this chapter. The other three I finished, it just didn't feel right. So much editing, deleting entire pages on the sole reason that they felt like they were "missing something."_

 _This one, at least, feels cleaner._

 _I looked to my notes and saw that I covered all the bits I wanted to cover, and even added a bunch of things on the fly._

 _I also noticed that I repeat a lot of the same words very often. I use an online thesaurus as a reference, and it's normally helpful, but there are times I see words it suggests to replace with a word I've already used recently. I comb through other synonyms, but often find myself using the word I'm more comfortable with… which is something I've used like three dozen times already in the past chapter._

 _God, writing is hard. I couldn't imagine doing this as an actual occupation. I now have increased respect for writers who win the Pulitzer Prize, they honestly deserve it._

 _Anyway, some of you might get pissed off at me for this, but chapter updates, from here on out, will take a long time to load out. On top of my new job, among other personal things, I'm not even sure I'll have a social life, never mind the time to churn out chapters as fast as I want. I'll find a way to fit chapter updates into my schedule, if you want to keep reading my poor excuse for fictional writing._


	8. Chapter 6

I tallied up all the reviews and PMs regarding 5A vs 5B, and it turns out a large majority of you prefer the Ainz + OC route. Here's the "intermission" chapter I mentioned before. In my opinion, not much happens here, but you may have a different view on that.

At the posting of this chapter, 5B will be removed. I apologize to the ones who wanted that version of the story, but majority gets this one. I'll probably continue it when I find the time.

Next, and I gave this a lot of thought over my hiatus period, this story will remain with the writing style I started with. One reviewer mentioned a saying by Hemmingway, "show, don't tell" with a complaint on my action scenes. To the person who made that review, you stated you wouldn't offer criticism so I took it as a comment in that you didn't like what I wrote and moved on with your life.

While I think I have gist of what quote entails, after looking it up, I'm honestly not a good enough writer to keep up with it. I tried it a few times over the hiatus, but kept regressing to old habits. So, this is how it's going to be: this story's action scenes, and probably the rest of the content, will be written in 'tell, don't show' unless I can help it, but I won't force myself either.

I'm sorry if this annoys anyone – you're free to not read if you don't want to. I just wanted to get this out there for anyone who prefers to read 'show, don't tell,' types of writing. I'm not a good enough writer to be able to change my current writing style on the fly and stick to it. And it's not that I'm being lazy, but it's just not something I can change easily. If I learned how to write stories in a showing way from the beginning, instead of telling, this story would look very different.

And if you notice a lot of self-insert on the OC, that is unintentional; I tried to write Kaiserius as an original character. His reactions, speech pattern, and mannerisms are things I created from scratch; how he acts in the story is not how I would act in real life. I.e., I'm not a sarcastic person. In fact, I'm a very straightforward talker. Also, I don't like to make snide or rude remarks. I may occasionally, but usually it's because the words just slip due to frustration or anger.

Lastly, he's not a perfect character; he will not come out of battles unscathed where his opponent is his equal or stronger, same as Ainz when he fought Shalltear in the anime/manga. Also, not everything goes his way. He will not be a Gary-Stu, but he will follow the same situation as Ainz in that he's in a world where he's one of the strongest beings in existence because everyone else is so weak in comparison. Physically, he's undeniably extremely powerful. Everything else is up for debate.

I understand if you're bothered with this but, again, sorry; it's not going to change.

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Overlord. If I did, there would be more two extra floor guardians so Shalltear wouldn't be the raid boss of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd floors.**

 **Chapter 6**

 **XXXXX**

I stifled up a yawn, opening my eyes and stretched my arms and legs, hearing and feeling creaks in my joints that I wasn't there before. It's times like these that I envy Ainz's skeletal form. He doesn't have to worry about muscle spasms or cramps. I found myself lying in bed, in my dimly-lit quarters, at the ninth floor. A dreary aura seemed to fill the room, the feeling of black death and a cryptic atmosphere. It's to be expected, though. After all, the Tomb of Nazarick is supposed to have a sense of dread permeating through every door, every hallway, every nook and cranny of this god-forsaken lair of villainy.

About an hour after my inauguration to the guild, Narberal returned with a small sack of krill, saying it was Ainz's payment for completing the quest to escort Nfirea. Although I wasn't officially a member of their party, at the time, Ainz broke half with me, saying I'd probably need the money more than he did. I found this a bit insulting at first, but shrugged it off when I remembered something. Unlike Ainz, who now dons an undead body, I'm still walking around in the flesh. That means I need certain accommodations that he doesn't necessarily require.

As an oni, I don't need as much food or sleep to maintain optimum day-to-day functionality, compared to humans, though I still do need a small amount. The natural regenerative properties of an oni ceases internal and external cellular deterioration caused by aging – oni do not age… at least past a certain point, which I would guess is once they've reached physical maturity. According to the YGGDRASIL website's description of the various races in the game, when I chose this race, oni, like demons, share traits of agelessness with vampires, but we can procreate with other creatures while vampires cannot.

We also don't need any abnormal catalysts to survive, such as vampires with their required daily intake of blood. In the game, players who took on the vampire race as their avatars would need to feed on the blood of humans or creatures in order to satiate their supernatural hunger. They would need to feed at least once every other day, using sleeping spells or mind-control charms, on their victims so they can feed without disruption. If they don't feed, they take a hit in their combat stats, a stacking five percent overall reduction per day, without limit, until even a level-capped vampire player would have trouble defeating a non-elite level 50 creature.

Of course, with this risk comes a high reward. So long as they maintain regular feeding, especially drinking the blood of humans, all vampires gain an over-boost in stats. This allows them to reach higher levels of HP, MP, physical attack, and magical attack stats compared to other level-capped players. Case in point, the vampire race is among the most powerful of the heteromorphic races. I'm almost certain that at least one among the human and human-like races have a similar ability, but I can't recall which.

Oni can eat human food and be fine with it, though I also remember reading that they prefer raw meat. To say that's gross is an understatement.

This makes me wonder if Shalltear secretly indulges on a red pack of type-O when no one is looking.

Oni are still part of the demon race and demon folklores are typically associated with having a barbaric culture and monstrous tendencies when it comes to eating; eating raw meat shouldn't sound too surprising. For the sake of my own sanity, I'll probably stick with cooked food, but may, some day, indulge in the other side of the coin just to sate my curiosity. If raw meat is the preferred meal of oni, then it might even taste better than stuff humans would eat. Ainz even expressed some envy with this choice of food, saying he wanted to see what it's like to eat something that was recently killed.

Or eat anything at all.

I wonder what it feels like to not need to feed? Furthermore, what it feels to not require oxygen. His lich form doesn't have lungs, or any organs… which forces another question. How does he feel pain due to a lack of nerve endings? Hmm. More pointless questions that probably have no answer to them unless I dig deep enough, which would be a massive waste of time considering all the other concerns I have.

I hopped out of bed, disregarding the choice of turning on any lights. All demons can see perfectly in the dark, and this includes vampires and oni. I understand werewolves have the same ability, although they are not demons. I picked up Raijin – it was sheathed, leaning against the edge of my bed – and strapped it on my belt as I walked outside and let off another yawn. Speaking of concerns, this is another one; Raijin mentioned identifying as a godsword. I'm pretty sure such a term didn't exist in YGGDRASIL. Sure, there were swords of gods, but that's just a general term to label a weapon wielded by a deity.

It could've been a shovel, for all anyone cared, so long as it's held by one who holds divine authority. There was nothing as specific as a godsword in all my years of playing that DMMO. Does that mean to say only swords can be god-weapons? Can there be godspears or godaxes? Maybe godshields?

I felt a groan escape my throat. What did I just finish telling myself about pointless questions? I banished the thought and approached the plain, black, door that led to the hallway of the guild member quarters of the ninth floor. Eventually, I'm sure answers will present themselves. There's no point beating myself up with questions that don't have answers yet, at least available to me. As soon as I opened the door, I noticed Solution Epsilon standing to the right of the door frame, donned in her full battle attire.

When the other Pleiades maids informed her of my return, she begged Ainz to allow her to see me. The overlord had no problem with it, so long as someone took her place in her mission with Sebas; Yuri Alpha was the chosen candidate. Ainz mentioned all this to me, as I was headed to my room for a nap. He also ordered Solution to stay outside my room until I stepped out. Seeing her here means she did just that. The blond maid bowed to me and smiled, her hands crossed in front of her hips. I resisted the urge of allowing my eyes to trail down her voluptuous chest. Don't do it, Kai, she's like a daughter to you.

That would cross into the borders of incest.

A sincere and generous smile graced the face of the stone-cold killer, guised as a kind, sweet, maiden. Standing at two whole heads shorter than me, the fair-skinned beauty was the model example of an alluring western woman... in my opinion, anyway. I created her human form after several pages of research in the field of female western beauty. Her blond locks swirled down against her head, with straight ends of silk-like hair that framed a perfect pair of cheek bones, and a feminine jawline.

I could stare into her sapphire-blue eyes for hours, and am not ashamed to admit that I did so while in game and away from the prying looks of my old friends. Her black, leather, neck collar was a sign of submissiveness to her creator; the partially exposed supple mounds below her naked chest was a good touch, something unique to her as the others didn't want their creations looking like sex on a stick… a physically dazzling and exquisite stick. The white frills that framed her bosom and side-pectorals covered just enough skin to make any man, or woman, want more, luring them to a corrosive demise.

One aspect of her design I found myself really proud of was the perfected curvature of her hips, and the form-fitting skirt that reveals a long cut on the right side, allowing nimble movement. Attached to her fishnet thigh leggings is a leather garter belt, locked onto an inner holster located at the lower edge of her skirt. Her polished steel, thigh-high, sabatons reached just a couple of inches below her skirt, leaving a mouth-watering portion of creamy skin to ogle at, for the death of others and for my shameless pleasure.

Again, Kai, don't cross that line. Solution is a real person with a real conscience now.

"Good morning, my master," she greeted simply, her angelic voice soft and mellow. I was about to return her gesture when she tackled me to the floor with a hard embrace, her face pressed against my shoulder. "My most blessed lord, my revered creator, I am filled with delight to see you again!"

"Good morning to you, too, Solution," I said, pushing myself off the floor and picked myself up. I turned towards the meeting hall, hands in my pockets, with Solution still plopped in front of me, her face nuzzling into every corner of my cheek and shoulder like a horny man motor-boating a pair of sensual breasts. Ainz said to meet him in the throne room after I finished taking my nap. "Much as I'm enjoying this reunion, are you going to stay there?"

"If my lord so wishes, I would be happy to do just that," she said joyfully. I rolled my eyes and left my room, making my way down the royal suite.

The ninth floor was made as a common room for guild members, a living space almost too beautiful to exist among the cryptic and horrific floors above it. There are 42 rooms for guild members, taking up about a fourth of the floor's total space. It accommodates all of our needs, providing NPCs to sell our vendor trash in exchange for gold, hot spas for relaxing, a large swimming pool, a bar to get hammered in, a line of clothing stores, and other little things Ainz Ooal Gown members can enjoy when not in the daily grind to obtain rare items, running dungeons and raids, or playing-killing.

I passed by the bar, before my nap, and ordered a shot of Jack Daniels.

This is an alcoholic drink that I used to frequent in the outside world, and is good for the warm tingle it gives when it goes down the throat. When the myconid barman, Sous-Chef, gave me the drink, I realized I didn't have any YGGDRASIL gold on me, but he mentioned not accepting payment from me anyway. As a Supreme Being, I'm privileged to as many free drinks as I want. That's not how it worked in-game, but I didn't complain. He mentioned that the usual price is two gold coins per shot, an insignificant amount, but I greatly appreciated the free drink when all our YGGDRASIL gold was spent on resurrecting Albedo.

As I opened the doors to the meeting room, adorned with marbled-white walls, segmented by tall ebony pillars, and a black sheet of opal flooring, I made note to take advantage of the ninth floor's facilities at a later time. The spa might be a nice place to kick back and relax after a hard day's work. I took a deep breath as I entered the meeting room, though I mostly inhaled Solution's perfume as she stayed wrapped around me. Her body transformed into slime, encasing herself around my torso. She suppressed the acidic properties her insides were created with, so it wouldn't harm me.

But even at her body's maximum corrosive power, my self-regeneration abilities can still overcome any damage she deals. Solution's armor corroding and flesh melting substance was meant to destroy objects over time, not akin to an explosive blast that causes instant devastation to enemies. As a predator slime, all of Solution's offensive racial abilities have additional damage-over-time effects. I created her to slowly torture her enemies and to find pleasure in it, almost as much pleasure as taking orders from me.

The only part of her that remained true to her human disguise was her head and hair.

"Ah, the round table…" I muttered with a sigh, imagining the others seated around the marble table, on the black mahogany seats, adorned with a red leather cushion for the back and bottom. The guild's crest was laid on a very large circle, laminated into the table. We often held our guild meetings here, along with all manner of arguments we spat on and on about until we could land on a final decision. I can almost picture Peroroncino and Bukubukuchagama going on their usual sibling bickering, and Ulbert face-palming, wishing we could get the meeting done and over with so he could return to his experiments.

"Are you reminiscing, my lord?" asked Solution, her head hanging just over my left shoulder. She looked ahead and smiled. "I can also recall the other Supreme Beings seated around this glorious table. I very much miss those days, seeing all of our wonderful creators in one place."

"Do you long for that time to return, Solution?" I asked her.

"Yes, I do, lord," she said. "I would very much like to see the other lords return to Nazarick, though I understand if they cannot. Your kind are gods among us lesser creatures, and I would imagine gods to be very busy creating and destroying life as they see fit. I long for the day the guild's members are to be reunited under the banner of Ainz Ooal Gown once more, but I am more than content, so long as my creator is here."

I proceeded past the table, past Ainz's assigned seat. I traced a hand across the small crack in front of his seat, on the table. When did this get here? Was it from Ainz? Hmm. It's the shape of a fist. Was it made in anger? I don't remember this being here, the last time I was in the meeting room. Maybe he pounded the table in rage that the others weren't coming back. I hope things change from here on out. He's no longer alone, and I hope my being here helps him out if only just a little bit. I moved my legs forward, going through the black double doors that would lead to descending stairs, eventually to the throne room.

I walked down the empty hallway, following the red carpet that led to a large double door with two carvings, one on each side. It depicted two warriors battling each other, a graceful angel and a devious demon. The doors opened automatically, as it was programmed to. I walked down the red carpet. Ainz was there, sitting on his gilded throne at the end of the hall, with Albedo to his left, and Narberal to his right. As I made my way to him, Narberal caught wind of us and reddened in the face. She lowered her head and closed her eyes.

"That is not very courteous behavior in the presence of our masters, Solution," she said in her usual monotone. The blond released her hold from me, reverted to her human disguise, stepped to the side, and then took two steps back before bowing to Ainz for a moment.

"Oh don't be like that, Narberal. Would you not do the same if Lord Nishikienrai were present?" she asked. Ainz and I looked to the raven-haired armored mage, whose face entered another shade of darker red. "Lord Kaiserius is my creator, my father. I knew he would return some day. My faith and patience was rewarded thusly, and so I will remain by his side as any sensible daughter would for her father."

Solution brought her palms together, in front of her chest, as a ball of light appeared. When she took hold of it, the ball manifested into a stuffed toy. My hand met my face as its form fully took place, taking the presence of… me. It was dressed in the same equipment I wear now, complete with a sheathed, plastic, toothpick-sized katana on its hip. It wasn't under a human guise either, taking the form of my oni persona. Ainz chuckled, taking humor in my embarrassment. Narberal began fuming from the ears as Solution hugged the toy to her chest. Albedo could only giggle.

"Oh dear god… you still have that thing?" I asked her, absolutely ashamed that she brought it out.

"Of course, lord. It is my most prized possession, a gift from my honorable maker before your departure, a memento for me to remember you by," she said with a smile. I groaned, absolutely humiliated at the event taking place. Narberal walked down the steps to face Solution. She turned her head away and extended her hand to the blond.

"M-may I borrow it? Lord Kaiserius is my co-creator, after all," she said.

"I do not mind, but know that I will pull your heart from your chest and shove it down your throat if you damage it or lose it," she said with an innocent smile, handing the toy over to Narberal, who hugged it immediately. Solution watched her colleague like a hawk, ensuring the safety of her toy. "As it is my prized possession, it is more important to me than anything else, except my master, including your life, and my own."

"Right…" I muttered, trying to ignore the scene of Narberal voraciously hugging my gift to the beautiful assassin. I looked up to the skeletal ruler of Nazarick. "So, Ainz, what's in the game plan for today?"

"Information gathering is our top priority, right now," he said, a bony finger tapping the body of the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown. "That said, I have been meaning to revisit E-Rantel. Before registering as an adventurer, we were given pamphlets to read that included some important rules. I can't read this world's language, so I had the guild receptionist highlight the important details. Apparently, new members of one's party must be registered into the Adventurer's guild roster. In my case, that includes you and Hamsuke. I hope you didn't think I would let you go out solo. There are many things we still do not understand about this world, and I do rather we all stay together."

I should have done the same, now that I think about it. I never was very fond of instruction manuals, though. When I would buy a new game, I always popped the thing right into my computer and just delved into the gaming world. If I made a mistake, then I would learn from it. I never really found the point of those gaming direction manuals; I even believed gaming companies put them in there just to find a reason to kill trees and waste ink and plastic. Though, in hindsight, I really should have kept it. Any information I can obtain, about this world, is worth keeping.

"No, no, I understand, and I don't particularly mind, as long as I still get to do my own thing."

"Of course. It is only for formality's sake," he said, rising from his throne. "Our second priority is to gather items from this world and feed them to the shredder."

"The Exchange Box?" I asked quizzically, recalling the name of the item that converts other items into YGGDRASIL gold. We dubbed it the 'shredder' due to how well it matches the function of an actual paper-cutting machine that offices normally have. Put paper in, and it poops shreds of paper out. In the case of the shredder, put items in and it poops gold coins out. I completely forgot about its existence, mostly because I didn't peg its abilities to have any use outside of the game. Because of its ability to churn out gold, which isn't used in this world, in place of items it's given, I never thought to use it here. "Does that even work on items from this world?"

"It does, and we will need to recover the 500 million gold from Albedo's revival," he said. Said succubus lowered her head in shame as she knelt beside her master. Ainz placed a hand on her head for a few seconds before setting it back to his side. "From the money pouch Narberal received when completing the quest of escorting Nfirea back to E-Rantel, it seems, in this world, quests function similarly to how they did in YGGDRASIL – we get rewards from finishing our objectives, be it in the form of money or items. The money is kept for whatever funds we need. The items are fed to the shredder to get back some YGGDRASIL gold-"

"- in case another NPC-revival is necessary," I said, stroking my chin, looking slightly away. Ainz nodded at my conclusion. Honestly, it's not a bad idea. "We aren't sure just how powerful creatures are in this world, and so we should always approach with caution; we should assume that strength, here, exists that can overwhelm even our guardians. I doubt money of this world can be used to revive Nazarick's NPCs; the website manual strictly mentions revivals of NPCs, created inside a dungeon that was transformed into a guild hall, can only be done through in-game gold... which we currently have very little of."

"Exactly," he said as he stood. "I mean to raise enough YGGDRASIL gold for at least one more revival. It's going to take a lot of work, but the shredder makes it possible."

Not to mention the less-than-admirable items in this world are unlikely to match or come close to the rarity and powerful abilities our current weapons have. In a way, that makes me lose hope of finding upgrades to my legendary armor set. It's a bit depressing, but these are the cards we've been dealt.

"That's a good plan, a goal to give us something to strive for. But now I think we should get a few other things straightened out," I said. "You know about the surrounding countries among Re-Estize, right? I believe they're called the Baharuth Empire and the Slane Theocracy. Are we doing anything to poke at those neighbors? Might as well see which allies we have and which we don't. Secondly, and this has been on my mind lately, in the off-chance that we'll be in this world for a while without any way to return to the world we came from, what are our long-term goals besides hoarding items to generate YGGDRASIL gold?"

"I-"

"If I may interject, lords," Albedo interrupted. We looked to her, awaiting her words. Even Narberal ceased paying attention to Solution's stuffed toy as she and the blond faced the floor guardian leader as well. "I do not know where the other Supreme Beings went, or if they plan to return to Nazarick, but neither of our remaining masters plan on leaving to join them, do they?"

"Lady Albedo…" Solution muttered, looking to the floor. I wonder if she's thinking the same. Narberal probably is too. After all, if we arrived here somehow, there must be a way for us to be sent back. The succubus stood, her hands folded in front of her hips like Solution.

"It is not my place to question any decision made by the Supreme Beings, I fully understand that especially in light of recent events," she said, looking to me. Her ladylike voice was trembling. "I do not know if the other lords have completed some rite of passage in which they leave their creations to venture elsewhere; perhaps they've gone to discover new lands or delve into new mysteries the way any god would. But you and Lord Ainz remain here, for reasons still unclear to me and I know in my heart that our makers would not leave without a good reason."

"Although this violates a rule that every creature of Nazarick is sworn to abide, I do not wish for either of my lords to depart, to join the other Supreme Beings. This is the one matter that I will challenge my lords on. Please… do not leave us," she begged, her emotions reaching me.

I've thought of this already, but it may be wise to voice my opinions on this matter.

"Albedo, I didn't mean to worry you, or either of you," I said, briefly turning to the two maids. Narberal was no longer embracing the stuffed doll. Instead, her arms lay steady against her sides. She held the doll's arm with one hand; it hung, forgotten, in her grasp. "To be honest, I've sat on the possibility of leaving, and joining the others if the opportunity ever presented itself. I don't know why Ainz and I are the only ones, among the others, who remained with the rest of you, but we have no plans on leaving."

"Well said, so there is no need to worry yourselves," said Ainz, taking over for me. "In time, my past comrades may return, as Kaiserius did. Or perhaps not; I don't have the authority to judge their actions and decisions. But if some kind of possibility exists that will take me back to the world I came from, I will not take it. I have a kingdom to rule, and I'll not see you all burn because I walked away from such an important responsibility."

"I couldn't have said it better," I spoke after Ainz. Solution wrapped her arms around my waist, pressing her forehead against my back. I could see Narberal and Albedo were satisfied with my response as they took a step back and knelt to the floor. I faced Ainz once more. "Anyway, with that settled, what are our long term goals?"

"Besides learning more about this world and amassing more YGGDRASIL coins for future NPC revivals?" asked Ainz. I nodded. "What do you think of world conquest? Do you think the two of us can pull off something like that? I had my hesitations before, when I thought I was alone. But with you here, the possibility exists."

I scoffed at his idea.

"Hard to say," I replied. "It might be fun, though."

"Is that a yes?"

"Sure, why not?" I said simply, letting my mouth run off without thinking about the gravity of our situation. Only a mere week in an unknown land and we're already making plans for dominating this rock and all the little ants in it. Are we ignorant of our situation? Or are we brimming with overwhelming confidence?

Narberal, Solution, and Albedo seemed pleased with my response, at least.

In reality, that's what I want them to think. I want to learn more about this world first, and to see if it's worth spending the time and resources it would take to make an entire world bow down to two people. It honestly sounds like a daunting task. But with all the weak creatures I've seen around here, extravagant goals such as world conquest may be the only worthwhile thing to pass the time on. Besides, I'm an oni and Ainz is an undead – neither of us will age beyond what we are now.

At this point, time is all we have.

"You will have all the support of Nazarick, my masters," said Albedo. "I will ensure that this world bows to the mere sound your names, and kiss the ground you walk on."

"To this we swear!" said Narberal and Solution. Ainz nodded at their conviction. So did I.

"Excellent. I believe it is time to continue our adventures. Albedo, continue informing me on Sebas and Yuri's progress. If anything happens, I want to be notified immediately," said Ainz, approaching me as a form-enveloping light encased his body, changing from his divine equipment into his black-armored form.

"Yes, Lord Ainz," she said, bowing to him as he walked down the five steps of stairs to stand beside me. We were about to teleport to the entrance of the tomb, using the guild ring on our fingers, when Solution bowed in front of the overlord.

"Lord, please hear a request of mine," she said. The, armored guild master remained silent, but gave a nod instead. "As the creation of Lord Kaiserius, I feel compelled to remain by his side at all times. I know this may be a selfish petition, but would you allow me to join your party so that I may remain close to my maker? His safety is my utmost priority. I do not wish to leave his side."

Ainz turned to me.

"What do you think, Kaiserius? As you're the one mostly affected by this, I believe your input is the most important," he said. Solution glanced to me.

"Master, I promise not to get in your way. I will vanquish all of your enemies. Should the need arise, I will happily give my life to protect yours – you need only say the word," she said, hopeful. I pondered on this.

Initially, I hadn't planned on taking any of Nazaricks' NPCs, during my adventures in this world.

If I need anything, I can always summon oni minions who are more powerful than Solution when it comes to levels and combat stats. And reviving them takes only a few bits of MP, unlike the gold required to revive Nazarick NPCs, should fatality befall them. Shizuku has the sub-job class of ninja, allowing her to fulfill any role of subtlety or silent assassination that Solution is best at. Shizuki can act as my melee beat stick and both have a passive self-regeneration ability in case they take damage. As I recall, Solution has no such ability, but that doesn't make her an inferior combat partner – physical attacks don't work on her, a noteworthy trait.

Speaking of, I should probably summon my two fallen oni minions later, just to tell them I didn't perish against Albedo.

Conversely, I don't want to overlook the way my creation feels about my safety. In YGGDRASIL, whenever I was in Nazarick, Solution would leave any post she was assigned, even if it was by another guild member, if it meant she could remain close to me. Her devotion to follow that setting is evident even in this New World, where all of the NPCs have their own conscience. They can think, feel, and make their own decisions. Solution's decision, as it seems, is to remain by my side. It may prove against my best interest if I tell her to stay here, much like a parent telling its child to stay away.

I sighed, wrapping an arm around the girl's waist.

"Let's not waste any time, then," I said, teleporting Solution and myself through the guild ring.

I wonder if I'm going to regret this down the line. I hadn't planned on taking any of Nazarick's NPCs with me, and it isn't simply because of the revival fee that I can't afford to pay if something happens to them… at least, it's not the only reason. I spent long hours creating Solution, along with the physical forms of the other maids. They're my pride and joy, a mark on the game I left behind as proof that I once played it, and was an active member of such a mighty guild. If they died in this world, and I couldn't revive them, the mark I left will disappear.

Oh well. It just means I'll have to try harder in keeping her safe, all of them.

Ainz and Narberal instantly appeared behind us, arriving a few mere seconds later. I patted Solution on the head, a smile plastered on her face as she hugged me again. Despite her true form being a predator slime, a ruthless killer, her embrace is warm to the touch. I have no idea how to be a parent, but I would imagine allowing my child to remain with me is within the parameters of parenthood. My own parents weren't like this with me, but maybe they were the exceptions to the rule.

As we made our way to E-Rantel, I glanced to my servant's outfit.

"Those maid clothes, not to mention how much they reveal, may not be appropriate for adventuring," I said, extending my hand at her. As my palm began to glow a white color, Solution held my wrist down.

"My lord, do not waste your divine energy," she said. "I am of the slime race, so I am capable of taking any form I desire and that includes my clothes. Tell me what outfit you wish me to don and I will make it possible."

"Don't worry about it. It would take too long to explain by words, anyway," I said, raising my hand to her once more. "Create Item Set: Shadowstalker."

A black shade wrapped around Solution's body as her battle maid outfit was replaced with one of my choosing. I didn't want her to look too extravagant, so as to rouse any suspicion. I know two things that her male enemies will pay attention to, during combat, and even just men in a general setting. I already regret adding a feature in her settings that has her prefer the female humanoid appearances with a large bust. Oh well, no use crying over spilled milk.

When the shade vanished from the woman, her maid outfit was replaced with something more appropriate for adventuring.

She wore a formfitting, black, long sleeve undershirt with a dark brown, sleeveless, studded-leather cuirass worn on top. A three-buckle corset was strapped around the waist and abdomen, at both the front and rear of the cuirass. A pair of black light plate arm guards, over leather garments, were worn over the wrists and forearms. Her hands were coated with black leather gloves with a rough leather material on the outside, and cloth on the palm and fingers.

Solution wore a dark brown, form-fitting, soft leather thigh skirt and black leather thigh boots under the loose iron-plate belt on her hips, and two sheathed daggers on the left and right sides of the belt. The skirt bore rips on exterior thigh areas to allow nimble movement. A pair of black sashes draped down from her belt, at the center-most section of the skirt, hanging just an inch below her knees. Her shoulders, barring the black sleeves on her undershirt, and upper thighs were left bare.

The woman's blond hair was now worn straight, in a low ponytail.

Narberal found herself clapping as Solution examined herself.

"That is a lot of leather, Kaiserius. Perhaps you are into BDSM?" asked Ainz. I facepalmed hard and chose not to reply. Solution glanced to the armored warrior.

"Lord, what is this BDSM?"

"Oh, you don't know? Well, it is a form of roleplay, that involves a dominant master, a submissive servant, and-"

"Can we not go there? Besides, she's an assassin. Do assassins wear anything but leather? Or even cloth? Watch some more anime, would you?" I interrupted him, getting a little defensive. Ainz let off a chuckle as he continued his walk. Narberal and Solution were behind us. I could hear the two women conversing among themselves.

"Do you think Lord Kaiserius has a liking for this… BDSM?" asked Solution.

"I do not know, nor do I know the premise of this activity," answered Narberal. "The great ones often speak of terminologies that come as strange to us lesser beings."

"You heard what Lord Ainz said: it involves a dominant master and a submissive servant. Lord Kaiserius is the master and creator of my body and soul, not to mention one of the finest duelists among the Supreme Beings. I am his submissive servant who will grant his every command no matter the repercussion to me. We fit the roles perfectly," she said. I shivered as she said those words. "I wonder if it will make my master happy if I learn of this activity that he may have an interest in."

"Perhaps you should, and perhaps I should as well," said the doppelganger. Ainz let out another chuckle, this time louder than before. He sounded like he was trying his hardest to keep to himself, but was failing miserably. "It is the duty of a servant to be knowledgeable in the interests of her masters. We must educate ourselves in order to be of better use to our makers; obedience to their will is the purpose of our creation."

"Yes, I think you are right. When we return to Nazarick, I will scour any tomes we have that were collected by the Supreme Beings. It is likely that I will find the answers I seek over there," said the blond. I pinched the bridge of my nose, expecting a headache about this later.

We walked for another hour and a half in relative silence, at least where Ainz and I are concerned. Ainz summoned his giant rodent and rode on its back. I was about to do the same, when I remembered I made no such pact with the steed I purchased to aid me on my first quest in this world. The horse-breeder, in E-Rantel, mentioned that all his horses are trained to return to the stables, where they were raised, in the event of the master's disappearance for a prolonged period, or death. If anything, my horse is either in E-Rantel's stables or being eaten by the demi-humans of this world.

I sure hope the latter isn't the case.

I wondered why we didn't just use greater teleportation, or flying magic. Everyone here is capable of that basic spell, and either Narberal or Solution can easily lift even a creature of Hamsuke's size with their own hands. Later, I came to the conclusion that it may not be the wisest idea. Most people of this New World aren't very potent with magic, so we might attract the wrong crowd if we're seen flying. Then again, since magic isn't new to these people, would it be so strange to see four flying people? I'm sure there are at least some denizens of this world who practice flight magic.

If it comes to it, if a dire enough emergency hits us in the face, I'm sure Ainz would not be against the use of flight. He has a pendant that is enchanted with flying magic, worn around his neck. While in his armored form, he can't fly without it. Kind of a hampering disguise, though, that armor is. It restricts most of the powers available to him as a necromancer, including flight without an enchanted item, due to the natural penalties that occur when such a spell is used by someone who doesn't have a warrior-type class. Why did he ever choose that armor as a disguise if it limits him?

Well, I'm sure the great Momon has his reasons.

We made sure to pass through Carne Village, making sure the village was orderly. The place was doing well enough; the goblins and villagers were even solidifying their borders with wooden planks instead of spears tied together, making it appear more civilized than barbaric. Houses were on the process of rebuilding, structures were being fortified with stronger materials to avoid devastation in the future, and some of the goblins were still teaching archery and swordsmanship to the young men and women who would act as protectors.

Shizuko was still teaching magic to the villagers. I instructed her to maintain 24-hour surveillance on the village, since she has no need for sleep. She asked about Shizuku and Shizuki. I informed her that they fell in battle against much stronger foes, though she couldn't believe there were very many people in this world more powerful than her and the two other minions. I summoned them again, remembering to do so after telling myself earlier. They were especially relieved that I wasn't killed by the powerful assailants who attacked us in the forest, the night before.

Shizuko was disappointed that I didn't call on her to aid me in battle, but understood that if Shizuki and Shizuku were slain, there was a high probability that she would have been done in as well. I ordered Shizuki to stand guard at the front gate, and Shizuku to maintain a constant protective perimeter around the village. I also had the three oni change shifts every other day, granting Shizuku the opportunity to pass down her skills of the bow, and Shizuki's knowledge of the sword, to the villagers. This allowed the goblins to work on other tasks such as construction or farming.

I told them that this may be temporary and that I might assign them other duties in the near future. For now, though, these are their current orders.

Their presence worked to our advantage, since the goblins were more on the peaceful side than relishing in combat. That's not to say my oni are savages, but their higher combat levels offer a greater variety of battle techniques to be taught, something the villagers direly need. Before we departed, my minions expressed their discomfort in allowing me to travel alone. I assured them that Solution would take care of any threats that came my way. The looks on their faces told me they were unconvinced, knowing the Pleiades assassin was weaker than they were, but trusted my judgment nonetheless.

Narberal took it upon herself to teach her colleague about subtlety, at least what she learned from Ainz, with regards to behaving around humans. The NPCs of Nazarick were programmed to hold humans at the lowest respect, even lower than rodents or insects. Ainz and I figured that this would bite us in the ass someday, and so it did. Narberal barely knows how to conduct herself around humans, who seem to be the dominant species in this world. I made sure to listen, in case I had to step in and correct any fallacies.

Narberal said behaving among humans was a very important skill she learned, and was one that would "please the masters." Solution seemed less than thrilled about it, but she's programmed to do anything that makes me happy, so she listened, intently, to everything Narberal said. I looked around the area, recognizing the battlefield created from my skirmish with Ainz against the possessed Albedo. I hope no one starts asking questions about the large holes and uneven grounds that we passed by.

A few minutes later, Solution's head perked up and turned around to see several horseback riders coming our way, about four of them. Two were donned in plate armor with sharp melee weapons on their backs and belts; one of the two had a bow on her back and two longswords on her belt; the other two had full-body robes on, and slightly magical sticks in hand. As soon as they saw us, they held back the reins of their horses, ordering them to halt.

"Look alive, adventurers!" said a gleaming steel-plated female warrior, the one with two swords hung on both sides of her hips, and a bow on her back.

She sported a bob of black hair, probably cut short so it wouldn't get in the way of battle… or maybe that's just her thing. The earrings, reddened lips, lack of an Adam's apple, and the rough-yet-feminine voice were the only tells she had of being a woman. Otherwise, she could have easily passed for a man; her thick metal armor that showed nothing of her skin didn't do her any favors with regards to femininity. But I respect a woman warrior who dresses appropriately for combat.

At least she doesn't follow that popular, though atrocious, trend among female characters in video and online games in which wearing less armor somehow increases their defense rating. I can't remember how many games I've played in which male players played as female characters dressed in next to nothing, carrying appropriate weapons or shields into battle, and somehow coming out alive and unscathed while all other armored-to-the-teeth warriors looked like they had seen better days. Admittedly, there weren't much complaints from me, but I can't imagine that being true in this very realistic world.

The drill sergeant-like woman glanced to the pendants under our necks, minus Solution and Hamsuke who obviously didn't own one.

"Copper-plates, huh? Never mind, E-Rantel can use all the help it can get."

"Is there something wrong at the city?" Ainz asked courteously. "Some kind of danger?"

"You don't know? That makes sense, no one ever lets copper-plates in on anything. My team and I were once at that rank, and no one took us seriously," she said. I noted the gold-plate pendant on her chest. Her team wore the same-colored plates. "It started at the break of dawn, less than two hours ago; the place is swarming with the undead and adventurers from all over the area have been called to fight them off while trying to save as many people as possible."

"Undead? In broad daylight?" I asked, glancing to Ainz for a second before turning back to the warrior woman. "Strange. But if it's been a few hours, shouldn't the threat have been quelled by now?"

"I thought the same, but it seems we're both mistaken," she said. "The summons from the Adventurer's Guild mentioned the strength of the walking dead, comparing them to at least silver or even gold-plate adventurers; I was told they've become problematic enough that the guild master sought aid from the capital. I was also told that their numbers only seem to increase, no matter how many are destroyed. If anything, you copper-plates will be tasked with rescuing as many survivors as possible, while the rest of us handle those soulless abominations."

"My lords," Narberal knelt before us. "Please allow Solution and I to handle this situation. There is no need for you to trouble yourselves with this lowly matter."

"Lowly? I don't think you understand the gravity of-" the mage-looking man spoke but was cut off quickly when Ainz shook his head.

"I'm very interested in seeing these undead, but mostly to see if there's someone else pulling the strings. Such is the usual with these sorts of cases. If you two charge in there and obliterate everything, the puppet master might flee in fear," he said. Narberal nodded and stood. I turned to the woman on horseback. She and her team were looking at Ainz like he'd grown two extra heads.

"These copper-plates, they're all the same. They think they can take on the world by themselves – their arrogance is legendary," said an axe-wielding warrior. "We're wasting our time with these fools, boss. Let's just go."

I scoffed at the man.

"Ainz, I think this man just insulted us."

"It would appear so," he said, flicking his flight pendant with a finger, the one with a blue wing crest attached to it. He took to the air. Narberal, Solution, and I followed suit, earning gasps from our small audience. Ainz took out a wooden whistle and blew on it, causing Hamsuke to vanish in a puff of smoke. Huh. That's convenient. "It would take at least another half hour to reach E-Rantel on horseback, but we should arrive in a minute or less."

I nodded, waving at the gold-plate adventurer team. They look shocked to the core as they witnessed us levitate above ground. Was I wrong about the people of this world not knowing about flight magic? It's not a complicated spell – the first variation, with a maximum flight speed of fifteen kilometers per second, is only fourth-tier. Then again, that militia I saved from the boar-men were awed at the basic-tier magic I performed in front of them. Since an YGGDRASIL player's attack stat determines the destructive force of their abilities, a basic-tier spell, for a level-capped magic-user, might look like something comparable to a second or third-tier spell to these people.

I mentally sighed at this. World domination is starting to look more and more feasible. While that's good news, I was hoping the journey would at least be challenging.

"Thanks for the tip. We'll see if we can leave some undead for you lot to play with," I said as the four of us darted to E-Rantel at breakneck speed.

 **XXXXX**

 **To whom this may concern,**

 **Thanks, V.**


End file.
